*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12699 ***

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THE WORKS OF

ARISTOTLE

THE FAMOUS PHILOSOPHER

Containing his Complete Masterpiece and
Family Physician; his Experienced
Midwife, his Book of Problems
and his Remarks on
Physiognomy

COMPLETE EDITION, WITH ENGRAVINGS

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THE MIDWIFE'S VADE-MECUM

Containing

PARTICULAR DIRECTIONS FOR MIDWIVES, NURSES, ETC.

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SOME GENUINE RECIPES FOR CAUSING SPEEDY DELIVERY.

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APPROVED DIRECTIONS FOR NURSES.

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PART I.--BOOK I

THE MASTERPIECE

     _On marriage and at what age young men and virgins are capable of
     it: and why so much desire it. Also, how long men and women are
     capable of it._


There are very few, except some professional debauchees, who will not
readily agree that "Marriage is honourable to all," being ordained by
Heaven in Paradise; and without which no man or woman can be in a
capacity, honestly, to yield obedience to the first law of the creation,
"Increase and Multiply." And since it is natural in young people to
desire the embraces, proper to the marriage bed, it behoves parents to
look after their children, and when they find them inclinable to
marriage, not violently to restrain their inclinations (which, instead
of allaying them, makes them but the more impetuous) but rather provide
such suitable matches for them, as may make their lives comfortable;
lest the crossing of those inclinations should precipitate them to
commit those follies that may bring an indelible stain upon their
families. The inclination of maids to marriage may be known by many
symptoms; for when they arrive at puberty, which is about the fourteenth
or fifteenth year of their age, then their natural purgations begin to
flow; and the blood, which is no longer to augment their bodies,
abounding, stirs up their minds to venery. External causes may also
incline them to it; for their spirits being brisk and inflamed, when
they arrive at that age, if they eat hard salt things and spices, the
body becomes more and more heated, whereby the desire to veneral
embraces is very great, and sometimes almost insuperable. And the use of
this so much desired enjoyment being denied to virgins, many times is
followed by dismal consequences; such as the green weesel colonet,
short-breathing, trembling of the heart, etc. But when they are married
and their veneral desires satisfied by the enjoyment of their husbands,
these distempers vanish, and they become more gay and lively than
before. Also, their eager staring at men, and affecting their company,
shows that nature pushes them upon coition; and their parents
neglecting to provide them with husbands, they break through modesty and
satisfy themselves in unlawful embraces. It is the same with brisk
widows, who cannot be satisfied without that benevolence to which they
were accustomed when they had their husbands.

At the age of 14, the menses, in virgins, begin to flow; then they are
capable of conceiving, and continue generally until 44, when they cease
bearing, unless their bodies are strong and healthful, which sometimes
enables them to bear at 65. But many times the menses proceed from some
violence done to nature, or some morbific matter, which often proves
fatal. And, hence, men who are desirous of issue ought to marry a woman
within the age aforesaid, or blame themselves if they meet with
disappointment; though, if an old man, if not worn out with diseases and
incontinency, marry a brisk, lively maiden, there is hope of him having
children to 70 or 80 years.

Hippocrates says, that a youth of 15, or between that and 17, having
much vital strength, is capable of begetting children; and also that the
force of the procreating matter increases till 45, 50, and 55, and then
begins to flag; the seed, by degrees, becoming unfruitful, the natural
spirits being extinguished, and the humours dried up. Thus, in general,
but as to individuals, it often falls out otherwise. Nay, it is
reported by a credible author, that in Swedland, a man was married at
100 years of age to a girl of 30 years, and had many children by her;
but his countenance was so fresh, that those who knew him not, imagined
him not to exceed 50. And in Campania, where the air is clear and
temperate, men of 80 marry young virgins, and have children by them;
which shows that age in them does not hinder procreation, unless they be
exhausted in their youths and their yards be shrivelled up.

If any would know why a woman is sooner barren than a man, they may be
assured that the natural heat, which is the cause of generation, is more
predominant in the man than in the woman; for since a woman is more
moist than a man, as her monthly purgations demonstrate, as also the
softness of her body; it is also apparent that he does not much exceed
her in natural heat, which is the chief thing that concocts the humours
in proper aliment, which the woman wanting grows fat; whereas a man,
through his native heat, melts his fat by degrees and his humours are
dissolved; and by the benefit thereof are converted into seed. And this
may also be added, that women, generally, are not so strong as men, nor
so wise or prudent; nor have so much reason and ingenuity in ordering
affairs; which shows that thereby the faculties are hindered in
operations.

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CHAPTER II

     _How to beget a male or female child; and of the Embryo and perfect
     Birth; and the fittest time for the copula._


When a young couple are married, they naturally desire children; and
therefore adopt the means that nature has appointed to that end. But
notwithstanding their endeavours they must know that the success of all
depends on the blessing of the Gods: not only so, but the sex, whether
male or female, is from their disposal also, though it cannot be denied,
that secondary causes have influence therein, especially two. First, the
general humour, which is brought by the arteria praeparantes to the
testes, in form of blood, and there elaborated into seed, by the
seminifical faculty residing in them. Secondly, the desire of coition,
which fires the imagination with unusual fancies, and by the sight of
brisk, charming beauty, may soon inflame the appetite. But if nature be
enfeebled, some meats must be eaten as will conduce to afford such
aliment as makes the seed abound, and restores the exhaustion of nature
that the faculties may freely operate, and remove impediments
obstructing the procreating of children. Then, since diet alters the
evil state of the body to a better, those subject to barrenness must eat
such meats as are juicy and nourish well, making the body lively and
full of sap; of which faculty are all hot moist meats. For, according to
Galen, seed is made of pure concocted and windy superfluity of blood,
whence we may conclude, that there is a power in many things, to
accumulate seed, and also to augment it; and other things of force to
cause desire, as hen eggs, pheasants, woodcocks, gnat-snappers,
blackbirds, thrushes, young pigeons, sparrows, partridges, capons,
almonds, pine nuts, raisins, currants, strong wines taken sparingly,
especially those made of the grapes of Italy. But erection is chiefly
caused by scuraum, eringoes, cresses, crysmon, parsnips, artichokes,
turnips, asparagus, candied ginger, acorns bruised to powder and drank
in muscadel, scallion, sea shell fish, etc. But these must have time to
perform their operation, and must be used for a considerable time, or
you will reap but little benefit from them. The act of coition being
over, let the woman repose herself on her right side, with her head
lying low, and her body declining, that by sleeping in that posture,
the cani, on the right side of the matrix, may prove the place of
conception; for therein is the greatest generative heat, which is the
chief procuring cause of male children, and rarely fails the
expectations of those that experience it, especially if they do but keep
warm, without much motion, leaning to the right, and drinking a little
spirit of saffron and juice of hissop in a glass of Malaga or Alicant,
when they lie down and arise, for a week.

For a female child, let the woman lie on her left side, strongly
fancying a female in the time of procreation, drinking the decoction of
female mercury four days from the first day of purgation; the male
mercury having the like operation in case of a male; for this concoction
purges the right and left side of the womb, opens the receptacles, and
makes way for the seminary of generation. The best time to beget a
female is, when the moon is in the wane, in Libra or Aquaries. Advicenne
says, that when the menses are spent and the womb cleansed, which is
commonly in five or seven days at most, if a man lie with his wife from
the first day she is purged to the fifth, she will conceive a male; but
from the fifth to the eighth a female; and from the eighth to the
twelfth a male again: but after that perhaps neither distinctly, but
both in an hermaphrodite. In a word, they that would be happy in the
fruits of their labour, must observe to use copulation in due distance
of time, not too often nor too seldom, for both are alike hurtful; and
to use it immoderately weakens and wastes the spirits and spoils the
seed. And this much for the first particular.

The second is to let the reader know how the child is formed in the
womb, what accidents it is liable to there, and how nourished and
brought forth. There are various opinions concerning this matter;
therefore, I shall show what the learned say about it.

Man consists of an egg, which is impregnated in the testicles of the
woman, by the more subtle parts of the man's seed; but the forming
faculty and virtue in the seed is a divine gift, it being abundantly
imbued with vital spirit, which gives sap and form to the embryo, so
that all parts and bulk of the body, which is made up in a few months
and gradually formed into the likely figure of a man, do consist in, and
are adumbrated thereby (most sublimely expressed, Psalm cxxxix.: "I will
praise Thee, O Lord, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.")

Physicians have remarked four different times at which a man is framed
and perfected in the womb; the first after coition, being perfectly
formed in the week if no flux happens, which sometimes falls out
through the slipperiness of the head of the matrix, that slips over like
a rosebud that opens suddenly. The second time of forming is assigned
when nature makes manifest mutation in the conception, so that all the
substance seems congealed, flesh and blood, and happens twelve or
fourteen days after copulation. And though this fleshy mass abounds with
inflamed blood, yet it remains undistinguishable, without form, and may
be called an embryo, and compared to seed sown in the ground, which,
through heat and moisture, grows by degrees to a perfect form in plant
or grain. The third time assigned to make up this fabric is when the
principal parts show themselves plain; as the heart, whence proceed the
arteries, the brain, from which the nerves, like small threads, run
through the whole body; and the liver, which divides the chyle from the
blood, brought to it by the vena porta. The two first are fountains of
life, that nourish every part of the body, in framing which the faculty
of the womb is bruised, from the conception of the eighth day of the
first month. The fourth, and last, about the thirtieth day, the outward
parts are seen nicely wrought, distinguished by joints, from which time
it is no longer an embryo, but a perfect child.

Most males are perfect by the thirtieth day, but females seldom before
the forty-second or forty-fifth day, because the heat of the womb is
greater in producing the male than the female. And, for the same reason,
a woman going with a male child quickens in three months, but going with
a female, rarely under four, at which time its hair and nails come
forth, and the child begins to stir, kick and move in the womb, and then
the woman is troubled with a loathing for meat and a greedy longing for
things contrary to nutriment, as coals, rubbish, chalk, etc., which
desire often occasions abortion and miscarriage. Some women have been so
extravagant as to long for hob nails, leather, horse-flesh, man's flesh,
and other unnatural as well as unwholesome food, for want of which thing
they have either miscarried or the child has continued dead in the womb
for many days, to the imminent hazard of their lives. But I shall now
proceed to show by what means the child is maintained in the womb, and
what posture it there remains in.

The learned Hippocrates affirms that the child, as he is placed in the
womb, has his hands on his knees, and his head bent to his feet, so that
he lies round together, his hands upon his knees and his face between
them, so that each eye touches each thumb, and his nose betwixt his
knees. And of the same opinion in this matter was Bartholinus. Columbus
is of opinion that the figure of the child in the womb is round, the
right arm bowed, the fingers under the ear, and about the neck, the head
bowed so that the chin touches the breast, the left arm bowed above both
breast and face and propped up by the bending of the right elbow; the
legs are lifted upwards, the right so much that the thigh touches the
belly, the knee the navel, the heel touches the left buttock, and the
foot is turned back and covers the secrets; the left thigh touches the
belly, and the leg lifted up to the breast.

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CHAPTER III

     _The reason why children are like their parents; and that the
     Mother's imagination contributes thereto; and whether the man or
     the woman is the cause of the male or female child._


In the case of similitude, nothing is more powerful than the imagination
of the mother; for if she fix her eyes upon any object it will so
impress her mind, that it oftentimes so happens that the child has a
representation thereof on some part of the body. And, if in act of
copulation, the woman earnestly look on the man, and fix her mind on
him, the child will resemble its father. Nay, if a woman, even in
unlawful copulation, fix her mind upon her husband, the child will
resemble him though he did not beget it. The same effect has imagination
in occasioning warts, stains, mole-spots, and dartes; though indeed they
sometimes happen through frights, or extravagant longing. Many women, in
being with child, on seeing a hare cross the road in front of them,
will, through the force of imagination, bring forth a child with a hairy
lip. Some children are born with flat noses and wry mouths, great
blubber lips and ill-shaped bodies; which must be ascribed to the
imagination of the mother, who has cast her eyes and mind upon some
ill-shaped creature. Therefore it behoves all women with child, if
possible, to avoid such sights, or at least, not to regard them. But
though the mother's imagination may contribute much to the features of
the child, yet, in manners, wit, and propension of the mind, experience
tells us, that children are commonly of the condition with their
parents, and possessed of similar tempers. But the vigour or disability
of persons in the act of copulation many times cause it to be otherwise;
for children begotten through the heat and strength of desire, must
needs partake more of the nature and inclination of their parents, than
those begotten at a time when desires are weaker; and, therefore, the
children begotten by men in their old age are generally weaker than,
those begotten by them in their youth. As to the share which each of the
parents has in begetting the child, we will give the opinions of the
ancients about it.

Though it is apparent that the man's seed is the chief efficient being
of the action, motion, and generation: yet that the woman affords seed
and effectually contributes in that point to the procreation of the
child, is evinced by strong reasons. In the first place, seminary
vessels had been given her in vain, and genital testicles inverted, if
the woman wanted seminal excrescence, for nature does nothing in vain;
and therefore we must grant, they were made for the use of seed and
procreation, and placed in their proper parts; both the testicles and
the receptacles of seed, whose nature is to operate and afford virtue to
the seed. And to prove this, there needs no stronger argument, say they,
than that if a woman do not use copulation to eject her seed, she often
falls into strange diseases, as appears by young men and virgins. A
second reason they urge is, that although the society of a lawful bed
consists not altogether in these things, yet it is apparent the female
sex are never better pleased, nor appear more blythe and jocund, than
when they are satisfied this way; which is an inducement to believe they
have more pleasure and titulation therein than men. For since nature
causes much delight to accompany ejection, by the breaking forth of the
swelling spirits and the swiftness of the nerves; in which case the
operation on the woman's part is double, she having an enjoyment both by
reception and ejection, by which she is more delighted in.

Hence it is, they say, that the child more frequently resembles the
mother than the father, because the mother contributes more towards it.
And they think it may be further instanced, from the endeared affection
they bear them; for that, besides their contributing seminal matters,
they feed and nourish the child with the purest fountain of blood, until
its birth. Which opinion Galen affirms, by allowing children to
participate most of the mother; and ascribes the difference of sex to
the different operations of the menstrual blood; but this reason of the
likeness he refers to the power of the seed; for, as the plants receive
more nourishment from fruitful ground, than from the industry of the
husbandman, so the infant receives more abundance from the mother than
the father. For the seed of both is cherished in the womb, and then
grows to perfection, being nourished with blood. And for this reason it
is, they say, that children, for the most part, love their mothers best,
because they receive the most of their substance from their mother; for
about nine months she nourishes her child in the womb with the purest
blood; then her love towards it newly born, and its likeness, do clearly
show that the woman affords seed, and contributes more towards making
the child than the man.

But in this all the ancients were very erroneous; for the testicles, so
called in women, afford not only seed, but are two eggs, like those of
fowls and other creatures; neither have they any office like those of
men, but are indeed the ovaria, wherein the eggs are nourished by the
sanguinary vessels disposed throughout them; and from thence one or more
as they are fecundated by the man's seed is separated and conveyed into
the womb by the ovaducts. The truth of this is plain, for if you boil
them the liquor will be of the same colour, taste and consistency, with
the taste of birds' eggs. If any object that they have no shells, that
signifies nothing: for the eggs of fowls while they are on the ovary,
nay, after they are fastened into the uterus, have no shell. And though
when they are laid, they have one, yet that is no more than a defence
with which nature has provided them against any outward injury, while
they are hatched without the body; whereas those of women being hatched
within the body, need no other fence than the womb, by which they are
sufficiently secured. And this is enough, I hope, for the clearing of
this point.

As for the third thing proposed, as whence grow the kind, and whether
the man or the woman is the cause of the male or female infant--the
primary cause we must ascribe to God as is most justly His due, who is
the Ruler and Disposer of all things; yet He suffers many things to
proceed according to the rules of nature by their inbred motion,
according to usual and natural courses, without variation; though indeed
by favour from on high, Sarah conceived Isaac; Hannah, Samuel; and
Elizabeth, John the Baptist; but these were all extraordinary things,
brought to pass by a Divine power, above the course of nature. Nor have
such instances been wanting in later days; therefore, I shall wave them,
and proceed to speak of things natural.

The ancient physicians and philosophers say that since these two
principles out of which the body of man is made, and which renders the
child like the parents, and by one or other of the sex, viz., seed
common to both sexes and menstrual blood, proper to the woman only; the
similitude, say they, must needs consist in the force of virtue of the
male or female, so that it proves like the one or the other, according
to the quantity afforded by either, but that the difference of sex is
not referred to the seed, but to the menstrual blood, which is proper to
the woman, is apparent; for, were that force altogether retained in the
seed, the male seed being of the hottest quality, male children would
abound and few of the female be propagated; wherefore, the sex is
attributed to the temperament or to the active qualities, which consists
in heat and cold and the nature of the matter under them--that is, the
flowing of the menstruous blood. But now, the seed, say they, affords
both force to procreate and to form the child, as well as matter for its
generation; and in the menstruous blood there is both matter and force,
for as the seed most helps the maternal principle, so also does the
menstrual blood the potential seed, which is, says Galen, blood well
concocted by the vessels which contain it. So that the blood is not only
the matter of generating the child, but also seed, it being impossible
that menstrual blood has both principles.

The ancients also say that the seed is the stronger efficient, the
matter of it being very little in quantity, but the potential quality of
it is very strong; wherefore, if these principles of generation,
according to which the sex is made were only, say they, in the menstrual
blood, then would the children be all mostly females; as were the
efficient force in the seed they would be all males; but since both have
operation in menstrual blood, matter predominates in quantity and in the
seed force and virtue. And, therefore, Galen thinks that the child
receives its sex rather from the mother than the father, for though his
seed contributes a little to the natural principle, yet it is more
weakly. But for likeliness it is referred rather to the father than to
the mother. Yet the woman's seed receiving strength from the menstrual
blood for the space of nine months, overpowers the man's in that
particular, for the menstrual blood rather cherishes the one than the
other; from which it is plain the woman affords both matter to make and
force and virtue to perfect the conception; though the female's be fit
nutriment for the male's by reason of the thinness of it, being more
adapted to make up conception thereby. For as of soft wax or moist clay,
the artificer can frame what he intends, so, say they, the man's seed
mixing with the woman's and also with the menstrual blood, helps to
make the form and perfect part of man.

But, with all imaginary deference to the wisdom of our fathers, give me
leave to say that their ignorance of the anatomy of man's body have led
them into the paths of error and ran them into great mistakes. For their
hypothesis of the formation of the embryo from commixture of blood being
wholly false, their opinion in this case must of necessity be likewise.
I shall therefore conclude this chapter by observing that although a
strong imagination of the mother may often determine the sex, yet the
main agent in this case is the plastic or formative principle, according
to those rules and laws given us by the great Creator, who makes and
fashions it, and therein determines the sex, according to the council of
his will.

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CHAPTER IV

     _That Man's Soul is not propagated by their parents, but is infused
     by its Creator, and can neither die nor corrupt. At what time it is
     infused. Of its immortality and certainty of its resurrection._


Man's soul is of so divine a nature and excellency that man himself
cannot comprehend it, being the infused breath of the Almighty, of an
immortal nature, and not to be comprehended but by Him that gave it. For
Moses, relating the history of man, tells us that "God breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul." Now, as for
all other creatures, at His word they were made and had life, but the
creature that God had set over His works was His peculiar workmanship,
formed by Him out of the dust of the earth, and He condescended to
breathe into his nostrils the breath of life, which seems to denote both
care and, if we may so term it, labour, used about man more than about
all other living creatures, he only partaking and participating of the
blessed divine nature, bearing God's image in innocence and purity,
whilst he stood firm; and when, by his fall, that lively image was
defaced, yet such was the love of the Creator towards him that he found
out a way to restore him, the only begotten son of the Eternal Father
coming into the world to destroy the works of the devil, and to raise up
man from that low condition to which sin and his fall had reduced him,
to a state above that of the angels.

If, therefore, man would understand the excellency of his soul, let him
turn his eyes inwardly and look unto himself and search diligently his
own mind, and there he shall see many admirable gifts and excellent
ornaments, that must needs fill him with wonder and amazement; as
reason, understanding, freedom of will, memory, etc., that clearly show
the soul to be descended from a heavenly original, and that therefore it
is of infinite duration and not subject to annihilation.

Yet for its many operations and offices while in the body it goes under
several denominations: for when it enlivens the body it is called the
soul; when it gives knowledge, the judgment of the mind; and when it
recalls things past, the memory; when it discourses and discerns,
reason; when it contemplates, the spirit; when it is the sensitive part,
the senses. And these are the principal offices whereby the soul
declares its powers and performs its actions. For being seated in the
highest parts of the body it diffuses its force into every member. It is
not propagated from the parents, nor mixed with gross matter, but the
infused breath of God, immediately proceeding from Him; not passing from
one to another as was the opinion of Pythagoras, who held a belief in
transmigration of the soul; but that the soul is given to every infant
by infusion, is the most received and orthodox opinion. And the learned
do likewise agree that this is done when the infant is perfected in the
womb, which happens about the twenty-fourth day after conception;
especially for males, who are generally born at the end of nine months;
but in females, who are not so soon formed and perfected, through defect
of heat, until the fiftieth day. And though this day in either case
cannot be truly set down, yet Hippocrates has given his opinion, that it
is so when the child is formed and begins to move, when born in due
season. In his book of the nature of infants, he says, if it be a male
and be perfect on the thirtieth day, and move on the seventieth, he will
be born in the seventh month; but if he be perfectly formed on the
thirty-fifth day, he will move on the seventieth and will be born in the
eighth month. Again, if he be perfectly formed on the forty-fifth day,
he will move on the ninetieth and be born in the ninth month. Now from
these paring of days and months, it plainly appears that the day of
forming being doubled, makes up the day of moving, and the day, three
times reckoned, makes up the day of birth. As thus, when thirty-five
perfects the form, if you double it, makes seventy the day of motion;
and three times seventy amounts to two hundred and ten days; while
allowing thirty days to a month makes seven months, and so you must
consider the rest. But as to a female the case is different; for it is
longer perfecting in the womb, the mother ever going longer with a girl
than with a boy, which makes the account differ; for a female formed in
thirty days does not move until the seventieth day, and is born in the
seventh month; when she is formed on the fortieth day, she does not move
till the eightieth and is born in the eighth month; but, if she be
perfectly formed on the forty-fifth day she moves on the ninetieth, and
the child is born in the ninth month; but if she that is formed on the
sixtieth day, moves on the one hundred and tenth day, she will be born
in the tenth month. I treat the more largely of love that the reader may
know that the reasonable soul is not propagated by the parents, but is
infused by the Almighty, when the child has its perfect form, and is
exactly distinguished in its lineaments.

Now, as the life of every other creature, as Moses shows, is in the
blood, so the life of man consists in the soul, which although subject
to passion, by reason of the gross composures of the body, in which it
has a temporary confinement, yet it is immortal and cannot in itself
corrupt or suffer change, it being a spark of the Divine Mind. And that
every man has a peculiar soul plainly appears by the vast difference
between the will, judgment, opinions, manners, and affections in men.
This David observes when he says: "God hath fashioned the hearts and
minds of men, and has given to every one his own being and a soul of its
own nature." Hence Solomon rejoiced that God had given him a soul, and a
body agreeable to it. It has been disputed among the learned in what
part of the body the soul resides; some are of opinion its residence is
in the middle of the heart, and from thence communicates itself to every
part, which Solomon (Prov. iv. 23) seems to confirm when he says: "Keep
thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." But
many curious physicians, searching the works of nature in man's anatomy,
do affirm that its chief seat is in the brain, from whence proceed the
senses, the faculties, and actions, diffusing the operations of the soul
through all parts of the body, whereby it is enlivened with heat and
force to the heart, by the arteries, corodities, or sleepy arteries,
which part upon the throat; which, if they happen to be broken or cut,
they cause barrenness, and if stopped an apoplexy; for there must
necessarily be ways through which the spirits, animal and vital, may
have intercourse and convey native heat from the soul. For though the
soul has its chief seat in one place, it operates in every part,
exercising every member which are the soul's instruments, by which she
discovers her power. But if it happen that any of the original parts are
out of tune, its whole work is confused, as appears in idiots and mad
men; though, in some of them, the soul, by a vigorous exertion of its
power, recovers its innate strength and they become right after a long
despondency in mind, but in others it is not recovered again in this
life. For, as fire under ashes, or the sun obscured from our sight by
thick clouds, afford not their native lustre, so the soul, overwhelmed
in moist or morbid matter, is darkened and reason thereby overclouded;
and though reason shines less in children than it does in such as are
arrived at maturity, yet no man must imagine that the soul of an infant
grows up with the child, for then would it again decay; but it suits
itself to nature's weakness, and the imbecility of the body wherein it
is placed, that it may operate the better. And as the body is more
capable of recovering its influence, so the soul does more and more
exert its faculties, having force and endowment at the time it enters
the form of a child in the womb; for its substance can receive nothing
less. And thus much to prove that the soul does not come from the
parents, but is infused by God. I shall next prove its immortality and
demonstrate the certainty of our resurrection.



OF THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL

That the soul of man is a Divine ray, infused by the Sovereign Creator,
I have already proved, and now come to show that whatever immediately
proceeds from Him, and participates of His nature, must be as immortal
as its original; for, though all other creatures are endowed with life
and motion, they yet lack a reasonable soul, and from thence it is
concluded that their life is in their blood, and that being corruptible
they perish and are no more; but man being endowed with a reasonable
soul and stamped with a Divine image, is of a different nature, and
though his body is corruptible, yet his soul being of an immortal nature
cannot perish; but at the dissolution of the body returns to God who
gave it, either to receive reward or punishment. Now, that the body can
sin of itself is impossible, because wanting the soul, which is the
principle of life, it cannot act nor proceed to anything either good or
evil; for could it do so, it might even sin in the grave. But it is
plain that after death there is a cessation; for as death leaves us so
judgment will find us.

Now, reason having evidently demonstrated the soul's immortality, the
Holy Scriptures do abundantly give testimony of the truth of the
resurrection, as the reader may see by perusing the 14th and 19th
chapters of Job and 5th of John. I shall, therefore, leave the further
discussion of this matter to divines, whose province it is, and return
to treat of the works of nature.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER V

     _Of Monsters and Monstrous Births; and the several reasons thereof,
     according to the opinions of the Ancients. Also, whether the
     Monsters are endowed with reasonable Souls; and whether the Devils
     can engender; is here briefly discussed._


By the ancients, monsters are ascribed to depraved conceptions, and are
designated as being excursions of nature, which are vicious in one of
these four ways: either in figure, magnitude, situation, or number.

In figure, when a man bears the character of a beast, as did the beast
in Saxony. In magnitude, when one part does not equalise with another;
as when one part is too big or too little for the other parts of the
body. But this is so common among us that I need not produce a
testimony.

[Illustration: There was a Monster at Ravenna in Italy of this kind, in
the year 1512.]

I now proceed to explain the cause of their generation, which is either
divine or natural. The divine cause proceeds from God's permissive will,
suffering parents to bring forth abominations for their filthy and
corrupt affections, which are let loose unto wickedness like brute
beasts which have no understanding. Wherefore it was enacted among the
ancient Romans that those who were in any way deformed, should not be
admitted into religious houses. And St. Jerome was grieved in his time
to see the lame and the deformed offering up spiritual sacrifices to God
in religious houses. And Keckerman, by way of inference, excludes all
that are ill-shapen from this presbyterian function in the church. And
that which is of more force than all, God himself commanded Moses not to
receive such to offer sacrifice among his people; and he also renders
the reason Leviticus, xxii. 28, "Lest he pollute my sanctuaries."
Because of the outward deformity, the body is often a sign of the
pollution of the heart, as a curse laid on the child for the
incontinency of its parents. Yet it is not always so. Let us therefore
duly examine and search out the natural cause of their generation, which
(according to the ancients who have dived into the secrets of nature) is
either in the mother or in the agent, in the seed, or in the womb.

The matter may be in default two ways--by defect or by excess: by
defect, when the child has only one arm; by excess, when it has four
hands or two heads. Some monsters are begotten by a woman's unnatural
lying with beasts; as in the year 1603, there was a monster begotten by
a woman's generating with a dog; which from the navel upwards had the
perfect resemblance of its mother: but from its navel downwards it
resembled a dog.

[Illustration]

The agent or womb may be in fault three ways; firstly, the formative
faculty, which may be too strong or too weak, by which is procured a
depraved figure; secondly, to the instrument or place of conception, the
evil confirmation or the disposition whereof will cause a monstrous
birth; thirdly, in the imaginative power at the time of conception;
which is of such a force that it stamps the character of the thing
imagined on the child. Thus the children of an adulteress may be like
her husband, though begotten by another man, which is caused through the
force of imagination that the woman has of her own husband at the act
of coition. And I have heard of a woman, who, at the time of conception,
beholding the picture of a blackamoor, conceived and brought forth an
Ethiopian. I will not trouble you with more human testimonies, but
conclude with a stronger warrant. We read (Gen. xxx. 31) how Jacob
having agreed with Laban to have all the spotted sheep for keeping his
flock to augment his wages, took hazel rods and peeled white streaks on
them, and laid them before the sheep when they came to drink, which
coupling together there, whilst they beheld the rods, conceived and
brought forth young.

[Illustration:
    "Where children thus are born with hairy coats
    Heaven's wrath unto the kingdom it denotes"]

Another monster representing a hairy child. It was all covered with hair
like a beast. That which made it more frightful was, that its navel was
in the place where its nose should stand, and its eyes placed where the
mouth should have been, and its mouth placed in the chin. It was of the
male kind, and was born in France, in the year 1597, at a town called
Arles in Provence, and lived a few days, frightening all that beheld it.
It was looked upon as a forerunner of desolations which soon after
happened to that kingdom, in which men to each other were more like
brutes than human creatures.

There was a monster born at Nazara in the year 1530. It had four arms
and four legs.

The imagination also works on the child, after conception, of which we
have a pregnant instance.

A worthy gentlewoman in Suffolk, who being with child and passing by a
butcher who was killing his meat, a drop of blood sprung on her face,
whereupon she said her child would have a blemish on its face, and at
the birth it was found marked with a red spot.

[Illustration]

Likewise in the reign of Henry III, there was a woman delivered of a
child having two heads and four arms, and the bodies were joined at the
back; the heads were so placed that they looked contrary ways; each had
two distinct arms and hands. They would both laugh, both speak, and
both cry, and be hungry together; sometimes the one would speak and the
other keep silence, and sometimes both speak together. They lived
several years, but one outlived the other three years, carrying the dead
one (for there was no parting them) till the survivor fainted with the
burden, and more with the stench of the dead carcase.

[Illustration]

It is certain that monstrous births often happen by means of undue
copulation; for some there are, who, having been long absent from one
another, and having an eager desire for enjoyment, consider not as they
ought, to do as their circumstances demand. And if it happen that they
come together when the woman's menses are flowing, and notwithstanding,
proceed to the act of copulation, which is both unclean and unnatural,
the issue of such copulation does often prove monstrous, as a just
punishment for doing what nature forbids. And, therefore, though men
should be ever so eager for it, yet women, knowing their own condition,
should at such times positively refuse their company. And though such
copulations do not always produce monstrous birth, yet the children,
thus begotten, are generally heavy, dull, and sluggish, besides
defective in their understandings, lacking the vivacity and loveliness
with which children begotten in proper season are endowed.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

In Flanders, between Antwerp and Mechlin, in a village called Uthaton, a
child was born which had two heads, four arms, seeming like two girls
joined together, having two of their arms lifted up between and above
their heads, the thighs being placed as it were across one another,
according to the figure on p. 39. How long they lived I had no account
of.

By the figure on p. 40 you may see that though some of the members are
wanting, yet they are supplied by other members.

It remains now that I make some inquiry whether those that are born
monsters have reasonable souls, and are capable of resurrection. And
here both divines and physicians are of opinion that those who,
according to the order of generations deduced from our first parents,
proceed by mutual means from either sex, though their outward shape be
deformed and monstrous, have notwithstanding a reasonable soul, and
consequently their bodies are capable of resurrection, as other men's
and women's are; but those monsters that are not begotten by men, but
are the product of women's unnatural lusts in copulating with other
creatures shall perish as the brute beasts by whom they were begotten,
not having a reasonable soul nor any breath of the Almighty infused into
them; and such can never be capable of resurrection. And the same is
also true of imperfect and abortive births.

Some are of opinion that monsters may be engendered by some infernal
spirit. Of this mind was Adigus Fariur, speaking of a deformed monster
born at Craconia; and Hieronimus Cardamnus wrote of a maid that was got
with child by the devil, she thinking it had been a fair young man. The
like also is recorded by Vicentius, of the prophet Merlin, that he was
begotten by an evil spirit. But what a repugnance it would be both to
religion and nature, if the devils could beget men; when we are taught
to believe that not any was ever begotten without human seed, except the
Son of God. The devil then being a spirit and having no corporeal
substance, has therefore no seed of generation; to say that he can use
the act of generation effectually is to affirm that he can make
something out of nothing, and consequently to affirm the devil to be
God, for creation belongs to God only. Again, if the devil could assume
to himself a human body and enliven the faculties of it, and cause it to
generate, as some affirm he can, yet this body must bear the image of
the devil. And it borders on blasphemy to think that God should so far
give leave to the devil as out of God's image to raise his own
diabolical offspring. In the school of Nature we are taught the
contrary, viz., that like begets like; therefore, of a devil cannot man
be born. Yet, it is not denied, but the devils, transforming themselves
into human shapes, may abuse both men and women, and, with wicked
people, use carnal copulation; but that any unnatural conjunction can
bring forth a human creature is contrary to nature and all religion.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER VI

     _Of the happy state of matrimony, as it is appointed by God, the
     true felicity that rebounds thereby to either sex; and to what end
     it is ordained._


Without doubt the uniting of hearts in holy wedlock is of all conditions
the happiest; for then a man has a second self to whom he can reveal his
thoughts, as well as a sweet companion in his labours, toils, trials,
and difficulties. He has one in whose breast, as in a safe cabinet, he
can confide his inmost secrets, especially where reciprocal love and
inviolable faith is centred; for there no care, fear, jealousy, mistrust
or hatred can ever interpose. For base is the man that hateth his own
flesh! And truly a wife, if rightly considered, as Adam well observed,
is or ought to be esteemed of every honest man as "Bone of his bone and
flesh of his flesh," etc. Nor was it the least care of the Almighty to
ordain so near a union, and that for two causes; the first, for the
increase of posterity; the second, to restrain man's wandering desires
and affections; nay, that they might be yet happier, when God has joined
them together, he "blessed them," as in Gen. ii. An ancient writer,
contemplating this happy state, says, in the economy of Xenophon, "that
the marriage bed is not only the most pleasant, but also profitable
course of life, that may be entered on for the preservation and increase
of posterity. Wherefore, since marriage is the most safe, and delightful
situation of man he does in no ways provide amiss for his own
tranquillity who enters into it, especially when he comes to maturity of
years."

There are many abuses in marriage contrary to what is ordained, the
which in the ensuing chapter I shall expose to view. But to proceed:
Seeing our blessed Saviour and His holy apostles detested unlawful
lusts, and pronounced those to be excluded the kingdom of heaven that
polluted themselves with adultery and whoring, I cannot conceive what
face people have to colour their impieties, who hating matrimony, make
it their study how they may live licentiously: for, in so doing, they
take in themselves torment, enmity, disquietude, rather than certain
pleasure, not to mention the hazard of their immortal soul; and certain
it is that mercenary love (or as the wise man called it harlot-smiles)
cannot be true and sincere and therefore not pleasant, but rather a net
laid to betray such as trust in them with all mischief, as Solomon
observes of the young man void of understanding, who turned aside to the
harlot's house, "as a bird to the snare of the fowler, or as an ox to
the slaughter, till a dart was struck through his liver." Nor in this
case can they have children, those endearing pledges of conjugal
affection; or if they have, they will rather redound to their shame than
comfort, bearing the odious brand of bastards. Harlots, likewise are
like swallows, flying in the summer season of prosperity; but the black
stormy weather of adversity coming, they take wing and fly into other
regions--that is, seek other lovers; but a virtuous, chaste wife, fixing
her entire love upon her husband, and submitting to him as her head and
king, by whose directions she ought to steer in all lawful courses,
will, like a faithful companion, share patiently with him in all
adversities, run with cheerfulness through all difficulties and dangers,
though ever so hazardous, to preserve and assist him, in poverty,
sickness, or whatsoever misfortunes befall him, acting according to her
duty in all things; but a proud, imperious harlot will do no more than
she lists, in the sunshine of prosperity; and like a horse-leech, ever
craving, and never satisfied; still seeming displeased, if all her
extravagant cravings be not answered; not regarding the ruin and misery
she brings on him by those means, though she seems to doat upon him,
used to confirming her hypocrisy with crocodile tears, vows and
swoonings, when her cully has to depart awhile, or seems but to deny
immediate desires; yet this lasts no longer than she can gratify her
appetite, and prey upon his fortune.

Now, on the contrary, a loving, chaste and even-tempered wife, seeks
what she may to prevent such dangers, and in every condition does all
she can to make him easy. And, in a word, as there is no content in the
embraces of a harlot, so there is no greater joy in the reciprocal
affection and endearing embraces of a loving, obedient, and chaste wife.
Nor is that the principal end for which matrimony was ordained, but that
the man might follow the law of his creation by increasing his kind and
replenishing the earth; for this was the injunction laid upon him in
Paradise, before his fall. To conclude, a virtuous wife is a crown and
ornament to her husband, and her price is above all rubies: but the
ways of a harlot are deceitful.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER VII

     _Of Errors in Marriages; Why they are, and the Injuries caused by
     them._


By errors in marriage, I mean the unfitness of the persons marrying to
enter into this state, and that both with respect to age and the
constitution of their bodies; and, therefore, those who design to enter
into that condition ought to observe their ability and not run
themselves into inconveniences; for those that marry too young may be
said to marry unseasonably, not considering their inability, nor
examining the forces of nature; for some, before they are ripe for the
consummation of so weighty a matter, who either rashly, of their own
accord, or by the instigation of procurers or marriage-brokers, or else
forced thereto by their parents who covet a large dower take upon them
this yoke to their prejudice; by which some, before the expiration of a
year, have been so enfeebled, that all their vital moisture has been
exhausted; which had not been restored again without great trouble and
the use of medicines. Therefore, my advice is: that it is not convenient
to suffer children, or such as are not of age, to marry, or get
children.

He that proposes to marry, and wishes to enjoy happiness in that state,
should choose a wife descended from honest and temperate parents, she
being chaste, well bred, and of good manners. For if a woman has good
qualities, she has portion enough. That of Alcmena, in Plautus, is much
to the purpose, where he brings in a young woman speaking thus:--

    "I take not that to be my dowry, which
    The vulgar sort do wealth and honour call;
    That all my wishes terminate in this:----
    I'll obey my husband and be chaste withall;
    To have God's fear, and beauty in my mind,
    To do those good who are virtuously inclined."

And I think she was in the right, for such a wife is more precious than
rubies.

It is certainly the duty of parents to bring up their children in the
ways of virtue, and to have regard to their honour and reputation; and
especially to virgins, when grown to be marriageable. For, as has been
noted, if through the too great severity of parents, they may be crossed
in their love, many of them throw themselves into the unchaste arms of
the first alluring tempter that comes in the way, being, through the
softness and flexibility of their nature, and the strong desire they
have after what nature strongly incites them to, easily induced to
believe men's false vows of promised marriage, to cover their shame: and
then too late, their parents repent of their severity which has brought
an indelible stain upon their families.

[Illustration:
    Conception
    First Month
    Second Month
    Third Month
    Fourth Month]

[Illustration:
    Fifth Month
    Sixth Month
    Seventh Month
    Eighth Month
   Ninth Month]

Another error in marriage is, the inequality of years in the parties
married; such as for a young man, who, to advance his fortune, marries a
woman old enough to be his grandmother: between whom, for the most part,
strife, jealousies, and dissatisfaction are all the blessings which
crown the genial bed, is being impossible for such to have any children.
The like may be said, though with a little excuse, when an old doting
widower marries a virgin in the prime of her youth and her vigour, who,
while he vainly tries to please her, is thereby wedded to his grave.
For, as in green youth, it is unfit and unseasonable to think of
marriage, so to marry in old age is just the same; for they that enter
upon it too soon are soon exhausted, and fall into consumptions and
divers other diseases; and those who procrastinate and marry
unseemingly, fall into the like troubles; on the other side having only
this honour, if old men, they become young cuckolds, especially if their
wives have not been trained up in the paths of virtue, and lie too much
open to the importunity and temptation of lewd and debauched men. And
thus much for the errors of rash and inconsiderate marriages.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER VIII

     _The Opinion of the Learned concerning Children conceived and born
     within Seven Months; with Arguments upon the Subject to prevent
     Suspicion of Incontinency, and bitter Contest on that Account. To
     which are added Rules to Know the Disposition of Man's Body by the
     Genital Parts._


Many bitter quarrels happen between men and their wives upon the man's
supposition that the child comes too soon, and by consequence, that he
could not be the father; whereas, it is the want of understanding the
secrets of nature which brings the man into that error; and which, had
he known, might have cured him of his suspicion and jealousy.

To remove which, I shall endeavour to prove, that it is possible, and
has been frequently known, that children have been born at seven months.
Paul, the Counsel, has this passage in the 19th Book of Pleadings, viz.:
"It is now a received truth, that a perfect child may be born in the
seventh month, by the authority of the learned Hippocrates; and
therefore, we must believe that a child born at the end of the seventh
month in lawful matrimony may be lawfully begotten."

Galen is of opinion that there is no certain time set for the bearing of
children; and that from Pliny's authority, who makes mention of a woman
that went thirteen months with child; but as to what concerns the
seventh month, a learned author says, "I know several married people in
Holland that had twins born in the seventh month, who lived to old age,
having lusty bodies and lively minds. Wherefore their opinion is absurd,
who assert that a child at seven months cannot be perfect and long
lived; and that it cannot in all parts be perfect until the ninth
month." Thereupon the author proceeds to tell a passage from his own
knowledge, viz.: "Of late there happened a great disturbance among us,
which ended not without bloodshed; and was occasioned by a virgin, whose
chastity had been violated, descending from a noble family of unspotted
fame. Several charged the fact upon the Judge, who was president of a
city in Flanders, who firmly denied it, saying he was ready to take his
oath that he never had any carnal copulation with her, and that he would
not father that, which was none of his; and farther argued, that he
verily believed it was a child born in seven months, himself being many
miles distant from the mother of it when it was conceived. Upon which
the judges decreed that the child should be viewed by able physicians
and experienced women, and that they should make their report. They
having made diligent inquiry, all of them with one mind, concluded the
child, without discussing who was the father, was born within the space
of seven months, and that it was carried in the mother's womb but
twenty-seven weeks and some odd days; but if she should have gone full
nine months, the child's parts and limbs would have been more firm and
strong, and the structure of the body more compact; for the skin was
very loose, and the breast bone that defends the heart, and the gristles
that lay over the stomach, lay higher than naturally they should be,
not plain, but crooked and sharp, rigid or pointed, like those of a
young chicken hatched in the beginning of spring. And being a female, it
wanted nails upon the joints of the fingers; upon which, from the
masculous cartilaginous matter of the skin, nails that are very smooth
do come, and by degrees harden; she had, instead of nails, a thin skin
or film. As for her toes, there were no signs of nails upon them,
wanting the heat which was expanded to the fingers from the nearness of
the heart. All this was considered, and above all, one gentlewoman of
quality that assisted, affirming that she had been the mother of
nineteen children, and that divers of them had been born and lived at
seven months, though within the seventh month. For in such cases, the
revolution of the month ought to be observed, which perfects itself in
four bare weeks, or somewhat less than twenty-eight days; in which space
of the revolution, the blood being agitated by the force of the moon,
the courses of women flow from them; which being spent, and the matrix
cleansed from the menstruous blood which happens on the fourth day,
then, if a man on the seventh day lie with his wife, the copulation is
most natural, and then the conception is best: and the child thus
begotten may be born in the seventh month and prove very healthful. So
that on this report, the supposed father was pronounced innocent; the
proof that he was 100 miles distant all that month in which the child
was begotten; as for the mother she strongly denied that she knew the
father, being forced in the dark; and so, through fear and surprise, was
left in ignorance."

As for coition, it ought not to be used unless the parties be in health,
lest it turn to the disadvantage of the children so begotten, creating
in them, through the abundance of ill humours, divers languishing
diseases. Wherefore, health is no better discerned than by the genitals
of the man; for which reasons midwives, and other skilful women, were
formerly wont to see the testicles of children, thereby to conjecture
their temperature and state of body; and young men may know thereby the
signs and symptoms of death; for if the cases of the testicles be loose
and feeble, which are the proofs of life, are fallen, but if the secret
parts are wrinkled and raised up, it is a sign that all is well, but
that the event may exactly answer the prediction, it is necessary to
consider what part of the body the disease possesseth; for if it chance
to be the upper part that is afflicted, as the head or stomach, then it
will not so then appear by the members, which are unconnected with such
grievances; but the lower part of the body exactly sympathising with
them, their liveliness, on the contrary, makes it apparent; for nature's
force, and the spirits that have their intercourse, first manifest
themselves therein; which occasions midwives to feel the genitals of
children, to know in what part the gulf is residing, and whether life or
death be portended thereby, the symptoms being strongly communicated to
the vessels, that have their intercourse with the principal seat of
life.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER IX

     _Of the Green-Sickness in Virgins, with its causes, signs and
     cures; together with the chief occasions of Barrenness in Women,
     and the Means to remove the Cause, and render them fruitful._


The green-sickness is so common a complaint amongst virgins, especially
those of a phlegmatic complexion, that it is easily discerned, showing
itself by discolouring the face, making it look green, pale, and of a
dusty colour, proceeding from raw and indigested humours; nor doth it
only appear to the eye, but sensibly affects the person with difficulty
of breathing, pains in the head, palpitation of the heart, with unusual
beatings and small throbbings of the arteries in the temples, back and
neck, which often cast them into fevers when the humour is over vicious;
also loathing of meat and the distention of the hypochondriac part, by
reason of the inordinate effluxion of the menstruous blood of the
greater vessels; and from the abundance of humours, the whole body is
often troubled with swellings, or at least the thighs, legs and ankles,
all above the heels; there is also a weariness of the body without any
reason for it.

The Galenical physicians affirm, that this distemper proceeds from the
womb; occasioned by the gross, vicious and rude humours arising from
several inward causes; but there are also outward causes which have a
share in the production of it; as taking cold in the feet, drinking of
water, intemperance of diet, eating things contrary to nature, viz., raw
or burnt flesh, ashes, coals, old shoes, chalk, wax, nutshells, mortar,
lime, oatmeal, tobacco pipes, etc., which occasion both a suppression of
the menses and obstructions through the whole body; therefore, the first
thing necessary to vindicate the cause, is matrimonial conjunction, and
such copulation as may prove satisfactory to her that is afflicted, for
then the menses will begin to flow according to their natural and due
course, and the humours being dispersed, will soon waste themselves; and
then no more matter being admitted to increase them, they will vanish
and a good temperament of body will return; but in case this best remedy
cannot be had soon enough, then let blood in the ankles, and if she be
about sixteen, you may likewise do it in the arm, but let her be bled
sparingly, especially if the blood be good. If the disease be of any
continuance, then it is to be eradicated by purging, preparation of the
humour being first considered, which may be done by the virgin's
drinking the decoction of guaiacum, with dittany of erete; but the best
purge in this case ought to be made of aloes, agaric, senna, rhubarb;
and for strengthening the bowels and removing obstructions, chaly-beate
medicines are chiefly to be used. The diet must be moderate, and sharp
things by all means avoided.

And now, since barrenness daily creates discontent, and that discontent
breeds indifference between man and wife, or, by immediate grief,
frequently casts the woman into one or another distemper, I shall in the
next place treat thereof.



OF BARRENNESS.

Formerly, before women came to the marriage-bed, they were first
searched by the mid-wife, and those only which she allowed of as
fruitful were admitted. I hope, therefore, it will not be amiss to show
you how they may prove themselves and turn barren ground into fruitful
soil. Barrenness is a deprivation of the life and power which ought to
be in the seed to procreate and propagate; for which end men and women
were made. Causes of barrenness may be over much cold or heat, drying up
the seed and corrupting it, which extinguishes the life of the seed,
making it waterish and unfit for generation. It may be caused also, by
the not flowing or over-flowing of the courses by swellings, ulcers, and
inflammation of the womb, by an excrescence of flesh growing about the
mouth of the matrix, by the mouth of the matrix being turned up to the
back or side by the fatness of the body, whereby the mouth of the matrix
is closed up, being pressed with the omentum or caul, and the matter of
the seed is turned to fat; if she be a lean and dry body, and though she
do conceive, yet the fruit of her body will wither before it come to
perfection, for want of nourishment. One main cause of barrenness is
attributed to want of a convenient moderating quality, which the woman
ought to have with the man; as, if he be hot, she must be cold; if he be
dry, she must be moist; as, if they be both dry or both moist of
constitution, they cannot propagate; and yet, simply considering of
themselves, they are not barren, for she who was before as the barren
fig-tree being joined to an apt constitution becomes as the fruitful
vine. And that a man and woman, being every way of like constitution,
cannot create, I will bring nature itself for a testimony, who hath made
man of a better constitution than woman, that the quality of the one,
may moderate the quality of the other.



SIGNS OF BARRENNESS.

If barrenness proceeds from overmuch heat, if she is a dry body, subject
to anger, has black hair, quick pulse, and her purgations flow but
little, and that with pain, she loves to play in the courts of Venus.
But if it comes by cold, then the signs are contrary to the above
mentioned. If through the evil quality of the womb, make a suffumigation
of red styrax, myrrh, cassia-wood, nutmeg, and cinnamon; and let her
receive the fumes into her womb, covering her very close; and if the
odour so received passes through the body to the mouth and nostrils,
she is fruitful. But if she feels not the fumes in her mouth and
nostrils, it argues barrenness one of these ways--that the spirit of the
seed is either extinguished through cold, or dissipated through heat. If
any woman be suspected to be unfruitful, cast natural brimstone, such as
is digged out of mines, into her urine, and if worms breed therein, she
is not barren.



PROGNOSTICS.

Barrenness makes women look young, because they are free from those
pains and sorrows which other women are accustomed to. Yet they have not
the full perfection of health which other women enjoy, because they are
not rightly purged of the menstruous blood and superfluous seed, which
are the principal cause of most uterine diseases.

First, the cause must be removed, the womb strengthened, and the spirits
of the seed enlivened. If the womb be over hot, take syrup of succory,
with rhubarb, syrup of violets, roses, cassia, purslain. Take of endive,
water-lilies, borage flowers, of each a handful; rhubarb, mirobalans, of
each three drachms; make a decoction with water, and to the straining of
the syrup add electuary violets one ounce, syrup of cassia half an
ounce, manna three drachms; make a potion. Take of syrup of mugwort one
ounce, syrup of maiden-hair two ounces, pulv-elect triasand one drachm;
make a julep. Take prus. salt, elect. ros. mesua, of each three drachms,
rhubarb one scruple, and make a bolus; apply to the loins and privy
parts fomentations of the juice of lettuce, violets, roses, malloes,
vine leaves and nightshade; anoint the secret parts with the cooling
unguent of Galen.

If the power of the seed be extinguished by cold, take every morning two
spoonfuls of cinnamon water, with one scruple of mithridate. Take syrup
of calamint, mugwort and betony, of each one ounce; waters of
pennyroyal, feverfew, hyssop and sage, of each two ounces; make a julep.
Take oil of aniseed two scruples and a half; diacimini,
diacliathidiamosei and diagla-ongoe, of each one drachm, sugar four
ounces, with water of cinnamon, and make lozenges; take of them a drachm
and a half twice a day, two hours before meals; fasten cupping glasses
to the hips and belly. Take of styrax and calamint one ounce, mastick,
cinnamon, nutmeg, lign, aloes, and frankincense, of each half ounce;
musk, ten grains, ambergris, half a scruple; make a confection with
rosewater, divide it into four equal parts; one part make a pomatum
oderation to smell at if she be not hysterical; of the second, make a
mass of pills, and let her take three every other night: of the third
make a pessary, dip it in oil of spikenard, and put it up; of the
fourth, make a suffumigation for the womb.

If the faculties of the womb be weakened, and the life of the seed
suffocated by over much humidity flowing to those parts: take of betony,
marjoram, mugwort, pennyroyal and balm, of each a handful; roots of alum
and fennel, of each two drachms; aniseed and cummin, of each one drachm,
with sugar and water a sufficient quantity; make a syrup, and take three
ounces every morning.

Purge with the following things; take of the diagnidium, two grains,
spicierum of castor, a scruple, pill foedit two scruples, with syrup of
mugwort, make six pills. Take apeo, diagem. diamoser, diamb. of each one
drachm; cinnamon, one drachm and a half; cloves, mace and nutmeg, of
each half a drachm; sugar six ounces, with water of feverfew; make
lozenges, to be taken every morning. Take of decoction of sarsaparilla
and virga aurea, not forgetting sage, which Agrippa, wondering at its
operation, has honoured with the name of _sacra herba_, a holy herb. It
is recorded by Dodonoeus in the _History of Plants_, lib. ii. cap. 77,
that after a great mortality among the Egyptians, the surviving women,
that they might multiply quickly, were commanded to drink the juice of
sage, and to anoint the genitals with oil of aniseed and spikenard. Take
mace, nutmeg, cinnamon, styrax and amber, of each one drachm; cloves,
laudanum, of each half a drachm; turpentine, a sufficient quantity;
trochisks, to smooth the womb. Take roots of valerian and elecampane, of
each one pound; galanga, two ounces; origan lavender, marjoram, betony,
mugwort, bay leaves, calamint, of each a handful; make an infusion with
water, in which let her sit, after she hath her courses.

If barrenness proceed from dryness, consuming the matter of the seed;
take every day almond milk, and goat's milk extracted with honey, but
often of the root satyrion, candied, and electuary of diasyren. Take
three wethers' heads, boil them until all the flesh comes from the
bones, then take melilot, violets, camomiles, mercury, orchia with their
roots, of each a handful; fenugreek, linseed, valerian roots, of each
one pound; let all these be decocted in the aforesaid broth, and let the
woman sit in the decoction up to the navel.

If barrenness be caused by any proper effect of the womb, the cure is
set down in the second book. Sometimes the womb proves barren where
there is no impediment on either side, except only in the manner of the
act; as when in the emission of the seed, the man is quick and the woman
is slow, whereby there is not an emission of both seeds at the same
instant as the rules of conception require. Before the acts of coition,
foment the privy parts with the decoction of betony, sage, hyssop and
calamint and anoint the mouth and neck of the womb with musk and civet.

The cause of barrenness being removed, let the womb be strengthened as
follows; Take of bay berries, mastic, nutmeg, frankincense, nuts,
laudanum, giapanum, of each one drachm, styracis liquid, two scruples,
cloves half a scruple, ambergris two grains, then make a pessary with
oil of spikenard.

Take of red roses, lapididis hoematis, white frankincense, of each half
an ounce. Dragon's blood, fine bole, mastic, of each two drachms;
nutmeg, cloves, of each one drachm; spikenard, half a scruple, with oil
of wormwood; make a plaster for the lower part of the belly, then let
her eat candied eringo root, and make an injection only of the roots of
satyrion.

The aptest time for conception is instantly after the menses have
ceased, because then the womb is thirsty and dry, apt both to draw the
seed and return it, by the roughness of the inward surface, and besides,
in some, the mouth of the womb is turned into the back or side, and is
not placed right until the last day of the courses.

Excess in all things is to be avoided. Lay aside all passions of the
mind, shun study and care, as things that are enemies to conception, for
if a woman conceive under such circumstances, however wise the parents
may be, the children, at best, will be but foolish; because the mental
faculties of the parents, viz., the understanding and the rest (from
whence the child derives its reason) are, as it were, confused through
the multiplicity of cares and thought; of which we have examples in
learned men, who, after great study and care, having connection with
their wives, often beget very foolish children. A hot and moist air is
most suitable, as appears by the women in Egypt, who often bring forth
three or four children at one time.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER X

     _Virginity, what it is, in what it consists, and how vitiated;
     together with the Opinions of the Learned about the Change of Sex
     in the Womb, during the Operation of Nature in forming the Body._


There are many ignorant people that boast of their skill in the
knowledge of virginity, and some virgins have undergone harsh censures
through their ignorant conclusions; I therefore thought it highly
necessary to clear up this point, that the towering imaginations of
conceited ignorance might be brought down, and the fair sex (whose
virtues are so illustriously bright that they excite our wonder and
command our imitation), may be freed from the calumnies and detractions
of ignorance and envy; and so their honour may continue as unspotted, as
they have kept their persons uncontaminated and free from defilement.

Virginity, in a strict sense, signifies the prime, the chief, the best
of anything; and this makes men so desirous of marrying virgins,
imagining some secret pleasure is to be enjoyed in their embraces, more
than in those of widows, or of such as have been lain with before,
though not many years ago, a very great personage thought differently,
and to use his own expression:--"The getting a maidenhead was such a
piece of drudgery, that it was fitter for a coal heaver than a
prince."[1] But this was only his opinion, for I am sure that other men
think differently.

The curious inquirers into the secrets of Nature, have observed, that in
young maidens in the _sinus pudoris_, or in what is called the neck of
the womb, is that wonderful production usually called the _hymen_, but
in French _bouton de rose_, or rosebud, because it resembles the
expanded bud of a rose or a gilly flower. From this the word _defloro_,
or, deflower, is derived, and hence taking away virginity is called
deflowering a virgin, most being of the opinion that the virginity is
altogether lost when this membrane is fractured and destroyed by
violence; when it is found perfect and entire, however, no penetration
has been effected; and in the opinion of some learned physicians there
is neither hymen nor expanded skin which contains blood in it, which
some people think, flows from the ruptured membrane at the first time of
sexual intercourse.

Now this _claustrum virginale_, or flower, is composed of four little
buds like myrtle berries, which are full and plump in virgins, but hang
loose and flag in women; and these are placed in the four angles of the
_sinus pudoris_, joined together by little membranes and ligatures, like
fibres, each of them situated in the testicles, or spaces between each
bud, with which, in a manner, they are proportionately distended, and
when once this membrane is lacerated, it denotes _Devirgination_. Thus
many ignorant people, finding their wives defective in this respect on
the first night, have immediately suspected their chastity, concluding
that another man had been there before them, when indeed, such a rupture
may happen in several ways accidentally, as well as by sexual
intercourse, viz. by violent straining, coughing, or sneezing, the
stoppage of the urine, etc., so that the entireness or the fracture of
that which is commonly taken for a woman's virginity or maidenhead, is
no absolute sign of immorality, though it is more frequently broken by
copulation than by any other means.[2]

And now to say something of the change of the sexes in the womb. The
genital parts of the sexes are so unlike each other in substance,
composition, situation, figure, action and use that nothing is more
unlike to each other than they are, and the more, all parts of the body
(the breasts excepted, which in women swell, because Nature ordained
them for suckling the infant) have an exact resemblance to each other,
so much the more do the genital parts of one sex differ, when compared
with the other, and if they be thus different in form, how much more are
they so in their use.

The venereal feeling also proceeds from different causes; in men from
the desire of emission, and in women from the desire of reception. All
these things, then, considered I cannot but wonder, he adds, how any one
can imagine that the female genital organs can be changed into the male
organ, since the sexes can be distinguished only by those parts, nor
can I well impute the reason for this vulgar error to anything but the
mistake of inexpert midwives, who have been deceived by the faulty
conformation of those parts, which in some males may have happened to
have such small protrusions that they could not be seen, as appears by
the example of a child who was christened in Paris under the name of
_Ivan_, as a girl, and who afterwards turned out to be a boy, and on the
other hand, the excessive tension of the clytoris in newly-born female
infants may have occasioned similar mistakes. Thus far Pliny in the
negative, and notwithstanding what he has said, there are others, such
as Galen, who assert the affirmative. "A man," he says, "is different
from a woman, only by having his genitals outside his body, whereas a
woman has them inside her." And this is certain, that if Nature having
formed a male should convert him into a female, she has nothing else to
do but to turn his genitals inward, and again to turn a woman into a man
by a contrary operation. This, however, is to be understood of the child
whilst it is in the womb and not yet perfectly formed, for Nature has
often made a female child, and it has remained so for a month or two, in
its mother's womb; but afterwards the heat greatly increasing in the
genital organs, they have protruded and the child has become a male, but
nevertheless retained some things which do not befit the masculine sex,
such as female gestures and movements, a high voice, and a more
effeminate temper than is usual with men; whilst, on the other hand, the
genitals have become inverted through cold humours, but yet the person
retained a masculine air, both in voice and gesture. Now, though both
these opinions are supported by several reasons, yet I think the latter
are nearer the truth, for there is not that vast difference between the
genitals of the two sexes as Pliny asserts; for a woman has, in a way,
the same _pudenda_ as a man, though they do not appear outwardly, but
are inverted for the convenience of generation; one being solid and the
other porous, and that the principal reason for changing sexes is, and
must be attributed to heat or cold, which operates according to its
greater or lesser force.



FOOTNOTES:

[1] Attributed to George IV (Translator).

[2] A young man was once tried at Rutland Assizes for violating a
virgin, and after close questioning, the girl swearing positively in the
matter, and naming the time, place and manner of the action, it was
resolved that she should be examined by a skilful surgeon and two
midwives, who were to report on oath, which they did, and declared that
the membranes were intact and unlacerated, and that, in their opinion,
her body had not been penetrated. This had its due effect upon the jury,
and they acquitted the prisoner, and the girl afterwards confessed that
she swore it against him out of revenge, as he had promised to marry
her, and had afterwards declined.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER XI

     _Directions and Cautions for Midwives; and, first, what ought to be
     the qualifications of a midwife._


A midwife who wishes to acquit herself well in her employment, ought
certainly not to enter upon it rashly or unadvisedly, but with all
imaginable caution, remembering that she is responsible for any mischief
which may happen through her ignorance or neglect. None, therefore,
should undertake that duty merely because of their age or because they
themselves have had many children, for, in such, generally, many things
will be found wanting, which she should possess. She ought to be neither
too old nor too young, neither very fat, nor so thin, as to be weak, but
in a good habit of body; not subject to illness, fears, nor sudden
frights; well-made and neat in her attire, her hands small and smooth,
her nails kept well-trimmed and without any rings on her fingers whilst
she is engaged in her work, nor anything upon her wrists that may
obstruct her. And to these ought to be added activity, and a due amount
of strength, with much caution and diligence, nor should she be given to
drowsiness or impatience.

She should be polite and affable in her manners, sober and chaste, not
given to passion, liberal and compassionate towards the poor, and not
greedy of gain when she attends the rich. She should have a cheerful and
pleasant temper, so that she may be the more easily able to comfort her
patients during labour. She must never be in a hurry, though her
business may call her to some other case, lest she should thereby
endanger the mother or the child.

She ought to be wary, prudent, and intelligent, but above all, she ought
to be possessed by the fear of God, which will give her both "knowledge
and discretion," as the wise man says.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER XII

     _Further Directions to Midwives, teaching them what they ought to
     do, and what to avoid._


Since the duties of a midwife have such a great influence on the
well-doing or the contrary of both women and children, in the first
place, she must be diligent in gaining all such knowledge as may be
useful to her in her practice, and never to think herself so perfect,
but that it may be possible for her to add to her knowledge by study and
experience. She should, however, never try any experiments unless she
has tried them, or knows that they can do no harm; practising them
neither upon rich nor poor, but freely saying what she knows, and never
prescribing any medicines which will procure abortion, even though
requested; for this is wicked in the highest degree, and may be termed
murder. If she be sent for to people whom she does not know, let her be
very cautious before she goes, lest by attending an infectious woman,
she runs the danger of injuring others, as sometimes happens. Neither
must she make her dwelling a receiving-house for big-bellied women to
discharge their load, lest it get her a bad name and she by such means
loses her practice.

In attending on women, if the birth happens to be difficult, she must
not seem to be anxious, but must cheer the woman up and do all she can
to make her labour easy. She will find full directions for this, in the
second part of this book.

She must never think of anything but doing well, seeing that everything
that is required is in readiness, both for the woman and for receiving
the child, and above all, let her keep the woman from becoming unruly
when her pains come on, lest she endanger her own life, and the child's
as well.

She must also take care not to be hurried over her business but wait
God's time for the birth, and she must by no means allow herself to be
upset by fear, even if things should not go well, lest that should make
her incapable of rendering that assistance which the woman in labour
stands in need of, for where there is the most apparent danger, there
the most care and prudence are required to set things right.

And now, because she can never be a skilful midwife who knows nothing
but what is to be seen outwardly, I do not think it will be amiss but
rather very necessary, modestly to describe the generative parts of
women as they have been anatomised by learned men, and to show the use
of such vessels as contribute to generation.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER XIII

     _The External, and Internal Organs of Generation in Women._


If it were not for the public benefit, especially for that of the
professors and practitioners of the art of midwifery, I would refrain
from treating the secrets of Nature, because they may be turned to
ridicule by lascivious and lewd people. But as it is absolutely
necessary that they should be known for the public good, I will not omit
them because some may make a wrong use of them. Those parts which can be
seen at the lowest part of the stomach are the _fissure magna_, or the
_great cleft_, with its _labia_ or lips, the _Mons Veneris_, or Mountain
of Venus, and the hair. These together are called the _pudenda_, or
things to be ashamed of because when they are exposed they cause a woman
_pudor_, or shame. The _fissure magna_ reaches from the lower part of
the _os pubis_, to within an inch of the _anus_, but it is less and
closer in virgins than in those who have borne children, and has two
lips, which grow thicker and fuller towards the pubis, and meeting on
the middle of the _os pubis_, form that rising hill which is called the
_Mons Veneris_, or the Hill of Venus.

Next come the _Nymphae_ and the _Clitoris_, the former of which is a
membrany and moist substance, spongy, soft and partly fleshy, of a red
colour and in the shape of two wings, which are joined at an acute angle
at their base, producing a fleshy substance there which covers the
clitoris, and sometimes they extend so far, that an incision is required
to make room for a man's instrument of generation.

The _Clitoris_ is a substance in the upper part of the division where
the two wings meet, and the seat of venereal pleasure, being like a
man's _penis_ in situation, substance, composition and power of
erection, growing sometimes to the length of two inches out of the body,
but that never happens except through extreme lustfulness or some
extraordinary accident. This _clitoris_ consists of two spongy and
skinny bodies, containing a distinct original from the _os pubis_, its
tip being covered with a tender skin, having a hole or passage like a
man's yard or _penis_, although not quite through, in which alone, and
in its size it differs from it.

The next things are the fleshy knobs of the great neck of the womb, and
these knobs are behind the wings and are four in number, resembling
myrtle berries, and being placed quadrangularly one against the other,
and here the orifice of the bladder is inserted, which opens into the
fissures, to evacuate the urine, and one of these knobs is placed before
it, and closes up the passage in order to secure it from cold, or any
suchlike inconvenience.

The lips of the womb, which appear next, disclose its neck, if they are
separated, and two things may be observed in them, which are the neck
itself and the _hymen_, or more properly, the _claustrum virginale_, of
which I have spoken before. By the neck of the womb we must understand
the channel that lies between the above-mentioned knobs and the inner
bone of the womb, which receives the penis like a sheath, and so that it
may be more easily dilated by the pleasure of procreation, the substance
is sinewy and a little spongy. There are several folds or pleats in this
cavity, made by tunicles, which are wrinkled like a full blown rose. In
virgins they appear plainly, but in women who are used to copulation
they disappear, so that the inner side of the neck of the womb appears
smooth, but in old women it is more hard and gristly. But though this
channel is sometimes crooked and sinks down yet at the times of
copulation, labour, or of the monthly flow, it is erected or distended,
which overtension occasions the pain in childbirth.

The hymen, or _claustrum virginale_, is that which closes the neck of
the womb, and is broken by the first act of copulation; its use being
rather to check the undue menstrual flow in virgins, rather than to
serve any other purpose, and usually when it is broken, either by
copulation, or by any other means, a small quantity of blood flows from
it, attended with some little pain. From this some observe that between
the folds of the two tunicles, which constitute the neck of the womb
there are many veins and arteries running along, and arising from, the
vessels on both sides of the thighs, and so passing into the neck of the
womb, being very large; and the reason for this is, that the neck of the
bladder requires to be filled with great vigour, so as to be dilated, in
order that it may lay hold of the penis better; for great heat is
required in such motions, and that becomes more intense by the act of
friction, and consumes a considerable amount of moisture, for supplying
which large vessels are absolutely necessary.

Another cause of the largeness of the vessels is, that menses make their
way through them, which often occasions pregnant women to continue
menstruating: for though the womb be shut up, yet the passages in the
neck of the womb through which these vessels pass, are open. In this
case, we may further observe, that as soon as the _pudenda_ are
penetrated, there appear two little pits or holes which contain a
secretion, which is expelled during copulation, and gives the woman
great pleasure.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER XIV

     _A description of the Fabric of the Womb, the preparing Vessels and
     Testicles in Women. Also of the Different and Ejaculatory Vessels._


The womb is joined to its neck in the lower part of the _Hypogastrium_
where the hips are the widest and broadest, as they are greater and
broader there than those of men, and it is placed between the bladder
and the straight gut, which keeps it from swaying, and yet gives it
freedom to stretch and dilate, and again to contract, as nature
requires. Its shape is somewhat round and not unlike a gourd, growing
smaller and more acute towards one end, being knit together by its
own ligaments; its neck likewise is joined by its own substance and by
certain membranes that fasten into the _os sacrum_ and the share-bone.
Its size varies much in different women, and the difference is
especially great between those who have borne children and those who
have had none. Its substance exceeds a thumb's breadth in thickness, and
so far from decreasing conception, it rather increases; and in order to
strengthen it it is interwoven with fibres which cross it from side to
side, some of which are straight and some winding, and its proper
vessels are veins, arteries and nerves. Amongst these there are two
small veins which pass into the womb from the spermatic vessels, and two
larger ones from the neck: the mouth of these veins pierces as far as
the inward cavity.

[Illustration: Position of a Child in the Womb just before delivery.]

[Illustration: The action of quickening]

The womb has two arteries on both sides of the spermatic vessels and the
hypogastric, which accompany the veins; and besides these, there are
several little nerves in the form of a net, which extend throughout it,
from the bottom of the _pudenda_; their chief function is sensibility
and pleasure, as they move in sympathy between the head and the womb.

It may be further noted that the womb is occasionally moveable by means
of the two ligaments that hang on either side of it, and often rises and
falls. The neck of the womb is extremely sensitive, so that if it be at
any time out of order through over fatness, moisture or relaxation, it
thereby becomes subject to barrenness. With pregnant women, a glutinous
matter is often found at the entrance to the womb so as to facilitate
the birth; for at the time of delivery, the mouth of the womb is opened
as wide as the size of the child requires, and dilates equally from top
to bottom.

The spermatic vessels in women, consist of two veins and two arteries,
which differ from those of men only in size and the manner of their
insertion; for the number of veins and arteries is the same as in men,
the right vein issuing from the trunk of the hollow vein descending and
besides them there are two arteries, which flow from the aorta.

These vessels are narrower and shorter in women than in men; but it must
be noticed that they are more intertwined and contorted than in men, and
shrink together by reason of their shortness that they may, by their
looseness, be better stretched out when necessary: and these vessels in
women are carried in an oblique direction through the lesser bowels and
testicles but are divided into two branches half way. The larger goes to
the stones and forms a winding body, and wonderfully inoculates the
lesser branches where it disperses itself, and especially at the higher
part of the bottom of the womb, for its nourishment, and that part of
the courses may pass through the vessels; and seeing that women's
testicles are situated near the womb, for that cause those vessels do
not fall from the peritoneum, nor do they make so much passage as in
men, as they do not extend to the share-bone.

The stones of woman, commonly called _testicles_, do not perform the
same function as in men, for they are altogether different in position,
size, temperature, substance, form and covering. They are situated in
the hollow of the muscles of the loins, so that, by contracting greater
heat, they may be more fruitful, their office being to contain the ova
or eggs, one of which, being impregnated by the man's seed engenders the
child. They are, however, different from those of the male in shape,
because they are smaller and flatter at each end, and not so round or
oval; the external superficies is also more unequal, and has the
appearance of a number of knobs or kernels mixed together.

There is a difference, also, in the substance, as they are much softer
and more pliable, and not nearly so compact. Their size and temperature
are also different for they are much colder and smaller than in men, and
their covering or enclosure is likewise quite different; for as men's
are wrapped in several covers, because they are very pendulous and would
be easily injured unless they were so protected by nature, so women's
stones, being internal and thus less subject to being hurt, are covered
by only one membrane, and are likewise half covered by the peritoneum.

The ejaculatory vessels are two small passages, one on either side,
which do not differ in any respect from the spermatic veins in
substance. They rise in one place from the bottom of the womb, and do
not reach from their other extremity either to the stones or to any
other part, but are shut up and impassable, and adhere to the womb as
the colon does to the blind gut, and winding half way about; and though
the testicles are not close to them and do not touch them, yet they are
fastened to them by certain membranes which resemble the wing of a bat,
through which certain veins and arteries passing from the end of the
testicles may be said to have their passages going from the corners of
the womb to the testicles, and these ligaments in women are the
_cremasters_[3] in men, of which I shall speak more fully when I come to
describe the male parts of generation.



FOOTNOTES:

[3] Muscles by which the testicles are drawn up.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER XV

     _A Description of the Use and Action of the several Generative
     Parts in Women._


The external parts, commonly called the _pudenda_, are designed to cover
the great orifice and to receive the man's penis or yard in the act of
sexual intercourse, and to give passage to the child and to the urine.
The use of the wings and knobs, like myrtle berries, is for the security
of the internal parts, closing the orifice and neck of the bladder and
by their swelling up, to cause titillation and pleasure in those parts,
and also to obstruct the involuntary passage of the urine.

The action of the clitoris in women is similar to that of the penis in
men, viz., _erection_; and its lower end is the glans of the penis, and
has the same name. And as the _glans_ of man are the seat of the
greatest pleasure in copulation, so is this in the woman.

The action and use of the neck on the womb is the same as that of the
penis, viz., erection, brought about in different ways: first, in
copulation it becomes erect and made straight for the passage of the
penis into the womb; secondly, whilst the passage is filled with the
vital blood, it becomes narrower for embracing the penis; and the uses
of this erection are twofold:--first, because if the neck of the womb
were not erected, the man's yard could find no proper passage to the
womb, and, secondly, it hinders any damage or injury that might ensue
through the violent striking of the _penis_ during the act of
copulation.

The use of the veins that pass through the neck of the womb, is to
replenish it with blood and vigour, that so, as the moisture is consumed
by the heat engendered by sexual intercourse, it may be renewed by those
vessels; but their chief business is to convey nutriment to the womb.

The womb has many properties belonging to it: first, the retention of
the impregnated egg, and this is conception, properly so called;
secondly, to cherish and nourish it, until Nature has fully formed the
child, and brought it to perfection, and then it operates strongly in
expelling the child, when the time of its remaining has expired,
becoming dilated in an extraordinary manner and so perfectly removed
from the senses that they cannot injuriously affect it, retaining within
itself a power and strength to eject the foetus, unless it be rendered
deficient by any accident; and in such a case remedies must be applied
by skilful hands to strengthen it, and enable it to perform its
functions; directions for which will be given in the second book.

The use of the preparing vessels is this; the arteries convey the blood
to the testicles; some part of it is absorbed in nourishing them, and in
the production of these little bladders (which resemble eggs in every
particular), through which the _vasa preparantia_ run, and which are
absorbed in them; and the function of the veins is to bring back
whatever blood remains from the above mentioned use. The vessels of this
kind are much shorter in women than in men, because they are nearer to
the testicles; this defect is, however, made good by the many intricate
windings to which those vessels are subject; for they divide themselves
into two branches of different size in the middle and the larger one
passes to the testicles.

The stones in women are very useful, for where they are defective, the
work of generation is at an end. For though those bladders which are on
the outer surface contain no seed, as the followers of Galen and
Hippocrates wrongly believed, yet they contain several eggs, generally
twenty in each testicle; one of which being impregnated by the animated
part of the man's seed in the act of copulation, descends through the
oviducts into the womb, and thus in due course of time becomes a living
child.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER XVI

     _Of the Organs of Generation in Man._


Having given a description of the organs of generation in women, with
the anatomy of the fabric of the womb, I shall now, in order to finish
the first part of this treatise, describe the organs of generation in
men, and how they are fitted for the use for which Nature intended them.

The instrument of generation in men (commonly called the yard, in Latin,
_penis_, from _pendo_, to hang, because it hangs outside the belly), is
an organic part which consists of skin, tendons, veins, arteries, sinews
and great ligaments; and is long and round, and on the upper side
flattish, seated under the _os pubis_, and ordained by Nature partly for
the evacuation of urine, and partly for conveying the seed into the
womb; for which purpose it is full of small pores, through which the
seed passes into it, through the _vesicula seminalis_,[4] and discharges
the urine when they make water; besides the common parts, viz., the two
nervous bodies, the septum, the urethra, the glans, four muscles and the
vessels. The nervous bodies (so called) are surrounded with a thick
white, penetrable membrane, but their inner substance is spongy, and
consists chiefly of veins, arteries, and nervous fibres, interwoven like
a net. And when the nerves are filled with animal vigour and the
arteries with hot, eager blood, the penis becomes distended and erect;
also the neck of the _vesicula urinalis_,[5] but when the influx of
blood ceases, and when it is absorbed by the veins, the penis becomes
limp and flabby. Below those nervous bodies is the urethra, and whenever
they swell, it swells also. The penis has four muscles; two shorter ones
springing from the _Cox endix_ and which serve for erection, and on that
account they are called _erectores_; two larger, coming from _sphincters
ani_, which serve to dilate the urethra so as to discharge the semen,
and these are called dilatantes, or wideners. At the end of the penis is
the _glans_, covered with a very thin membrane, by means of which, and
of its nervous substance, it becomes most extremely sensitive, and is
the principal seat of pleasure in copulation. The outer covering of the
_glans_ is called the _preputium_ (foreskin), which the Jews cut off in
circumcision, and it is fastened by the lower part of it to the _glans_.
The penis is also provided with veins, arteries and nerves.

The _testiculi_, stones or testicles (so called because they testify one
to be a man), turn the blood, which is brought to them by the spermatic
arteries into seed. They have two sorts of covering, common and proper;
there are two of the common, which enfold both the testes. The outer
common coat, consists of the _cuticula_, or true skin, and is called the
scrotum, and hangs from the abdomen like a purse; the inner is the
_membrana carnosa_. There are also two proper coats--the outer called
_cliotrodes_, or virginales; the inner _albugidia_; in the outer the
cremaster is inserted. The _epididemes_, or _prostatae_ are fixed to the
upper part of the testes, and from them spring the _vasa deferentia_, or
_ejaculatoria_, which deposit the seed into the _vesicule seminales_
when they come near the neck of the bladder. There are two of these
_vesiculae_, each like a bunch of grapes, which emit the seed into the
urethra in the act of copulation. Near them are the _prostatae_, about
the size of a walnut, and joined to the neck of the bladder. Medical
writers do not agree about the use of them, but most are of the opinion
that they produce an oily and sloppy discharge to besmear the urethra so
as to defend it against the pungency of the seed and urine. But the
vessels which convey the blood to the testes, from which the seed is
made, are the _arteriae spermaticae_ and there are two of them also.
There are likewise two veins, which carry off the remaining blood, and
which are called _venae spermaticae_.



FOOTNOTES:

[4] Seminal vesicle.

[5] Urinary vesicle.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER XVII

     _A word of Advice to both Sexes, consisting of several Directions
     with regard to Copulation._


As Nature has a mutual desire for copulation in every creature, for the
increase and propagation of its kind, and more especially in man, the
lord of creation and the masterpiece of Nature, in order that such a
noble piece of divine workmanship should not perish, something ought to
be said concerning it, it being the foundation of everything that we
have hitherto been treating of, since without copulation there can be no
generation. Seeing, therefore, so much depends upon it, I have thought
it necessary, before concluding the first book, to give such directions
to both sexes, for the performance of that act, as may appear
efficacious to the end for which nature designed it, but it will be done
with such caution as not to offend the chastest ear, nor to put the fair
sex to the blush when they read it.

In the first place, then, when a married couple from the desire of
having children are about to make use of those means that Nature has
provided for that purpose, it is well to stimulate the body with
generous restoratives, that it may be active and vigorous. And the
imagination should be charmed with sweet music, and if all care and
thoughts of business be drowned in a glass of rosy wine, so that their
spirit may be raised to the highest pitch of ardour, it would be as
well, for troubles, cares or sadness are enemies to the pleasures of
Venus. And if the woman should conceive when sexual intercourse takes
place at such times of disturbance, it would have a bad effect upon the
child. But though generous restoratives may be employed for invigorating
nature, yet all excess should be carefully avoided, for it will check
the briskness of the spirits and make them dull and languid, and as it
also interferes with digestion, it must necessarily be an enemy _to_
copulation; for it is food taken moderately and that is well digested,
which enables a man to perform the dictates of Nature with vigour and
activity, and it is also necessary, that in their mutual embraces they
meet each other with equal ardour, for, if not, the woman either will
not conceive, or else the child may be weak bodily, or mentally
defective. I, therefore, advise them to excite their desires mutually
before they begin their conjugal intercourse, and when they have done
what nature requires, a man must be careful not to withdraw himself from
his wife's arms too soon, lest some sudden cold should strike into the
womb and occasion miscarriage, and so deprive them of the fruits of
their labour.

And when the man has withdrawn himself after a suitable time, the woman
should quietly go to rest, with all calmness and composure of mind, free
from all anxious and disturbing thoughts, or any other mental worry. And
she must, as far as possible, avoid turning over from the side on which
she was first lying, and also keep from coughing and sneezing, because
as it violently shakes the body, it is a great enemy to conception.

       *       *       *       *       *




A

PRIVATE LOOKING-GLASS

FOR THE

FEMALE SEX

       *       *       *       *       *

PART II

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER I

     _Treating of the several Maladies incident to the womb, with proper
     remedies for the cure of each._


The womb is placed in the _hypogastrium_, or lower part of the body, in
the cavity called the _pelvis_, having the straight gut on one side to
protect it against the hardness of the backbone, and the bladder on the
other side to protect it against blows. Its form or shape is like a
virile member, with this exception, that the man's is outside, and the
woman's inside.

It is divided into the neck and body. The neck consists of a hard fleshy
substance, much like cartilage, and at the end of it there is a membrane
placed transversely, which is called the hymen. Near the neck there is a
prominent pinnacle, which is called the door of the womb, because it
preserves the _matrix_ from cold and dust. The Greeks called it
_clitoris_, and the Latins _praeputium muliebre_, because the Roman
women abused these parts to satisfy their mutual unlawful lusts, as St.
Paul says, Romans 1. 26.

The body of the womb is where the child is conceived, and this is not
altogether round, but dilates itself into two angles; the outward part
is full of sinews, which are the cause of its movements, but inside it
is fleshy. It is wrongly said, that in the cavity of the womb there are
seven divided cells or receptacles for the male seed, but anatomists
know that there are only two, and also that those two are not divided by
a partition, but only by a line or suture running through the middle of
it.

At the bottom of the cavity there are little holes called
_cotyledones_, which are the ends of certain veins or arteries, and
serve breeding women to convey nourishment to the child, which is
received by the umbilical and other veins, to carry the courses to the
_matrix_.

As to menstruation, it is defined as a monthly flow of bad and useless
blood, and of the super-abundance of it, for it is an excrement in
quality, though it is pure and incorrupt, like the blood in the veins.
And that the menstruous blood is pure in itself, and of the same quality
as that in the veins, is proved in two ways.--First, from the final
object of the blood, which is the propagation and preservation of
mankind, that man might be conceived; and that, being begotten, he might
be comforted and preserved both in and out of the womb, and all allow
that it is true that a child in the matrix is nourished by the blood.
And it is true that when it is out of it, it is nourished by the same;
for the milk is nothing but the menstruous blood made white in the
breast. Secondly, it is proved to be true by the way it is produced, as
it is the superfluity of the last aliment of the fleshy parts.

The natural end of man and woman's being is to propagate. Now, in the
act of conception one must be an active agent and the other passive, for
if both were similarly constituted, they could not propagate. Man,
therefore, is hot and dry, whilst woman is cold and moist: he is the
agent, and she the passive or weaker vessel, that she may be subject to
the office of the man. It is necessary that woman should be of a cold
constitution, because a redundancy of Nature for the infant that depends
on her is required of her; for otherwise there would be no surplus of
nourishment for the child, but no more than the mother requires, and the
infant would weaken the mother, and like as in the viper, the birth of
the infant would be the death of the parent.

The monthly purgations continue from the fifteenth to the forty-sixth or
fiftieth year; but a suppression often occurs, which is either natural
or morbid: the courses are suppressed naturally during pregnancy, and
whilst the woman is suckling. The morbid suppression remains to be
spoken of.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER II

     _Of the Retention of the Courses._


The suppression of the menstrual periods, is an interruption of that
accustomed evacuation of blood, which comes from the matrix every month,
and the part affected is the womb.



CAUSE.

The cause of this suppression is either external or internal. The
external cause may be heat or dryness of air, want of sleep, too much
work, violent exercise, etc., whereby the substance is so consumed, and
the body so exhausted that nothing is left over to be got rid of, as is
recorded of the Amazons who, being active and constantly in motion, had
their courses very little, if at all. Or it may be brought about by cold
which is very frequent, as it vitiates and thickens the blood, and binds
up the passages, so that it cannot flow out.

The internal cause is either instrumental or material; in the womb or in
the blood. In the womb, it may be in various ways; by humours, and
abscesses and ulcers, by the narrowness of the veins and passages, or by
the adipose membrane in fat bodies, pressing on the neck of the matrix,
but then they must have hernia, zirthilis, for in men the membrane does
not reach so low; by too much cold or heat, the one vitiating the
action, and the other consuming the matter through the wrong formation
of the uterine parts; by the neck of the womb being turned aside, and
sometimes, though rarely, by a membrane or excrescence of the flesh
growing at the mouth or neck of the womb. The blood may be in fault in
two ways, in quantity and in quality; in quantity, when it is so
consumed that no surplus is left over, as in viragoes or virile women,
who, through their heat and natural strength, consume it all in their
last nourishment; as Hippocrates writes of Prethusa, for when her
husband praised her overmuch, her courses were suppressed, her voice
changed and she got a beard with a manly face. But I think, rather that
these must be _Gynophagi_, or woman-eaters, rather than women-breeders,
because they consume one of the principles of generation, which gives a
being to the world, viz., the menstruous blood. The blood may likewise
be lost, and the courses checked by nosebleeding, by bleeding piles, by
dysentery, commonly called the bloody flux, by many other discharges,
and by chronic diseases. Secondly, the matter may be vitiated in
quality, and if it be sanguineous, sluggish, bilious or melancholy, and
any of these will cause an obstruction in the veins.



SIGNS.

Signs which manifest the disease are pains in the head, neck, back and
loins; weariness of the whole body (but especially of the hips and legs,
because the womb is near those parts); palpitation of the heart. The
following are particular signs:--If the suppression arises from a cold,
the woman becomes heavy, sluggish, pale and has a slow pulse; Venus'
combats are neglected, the urine is thick, the blood becomes watery and
great in quantity, and the bowels become constipated. If it arises from
heat, the signs are just the opposite. If the retention be natural and
arises from conception, this may be known by drinking hydromel, i.e.,
water and honey, after supper, before going to bed, by the effect which
it has; for if after taking it, she feels a heating pain about the navel
and the lower parts of the abdomen, it is a sign that she has conceived,
and that the suppression is natural.



PROGNOSTICS.

The whole body is affected by any disorder of the womb, and especially
the heart, the liver and the brain, and there is a singular sympathy
between the womb and those three organs. Firstly, the womb communicates
with the heart by the mediation of those arteries which come from the
aorta. Hence, when menstruation is suppressed, fainting, swooning, a
very low pulse, and shortness of breath will ensue. Secondly, it
communicates with the liver by the veins derived from the hollow vein.
Obstructions, jaundice, dropsy, induration of the spleen will follow.
Thirdly, it communicates with the brain by the nerves and membranes of
the back; hence arise epilepsy, madness, fits of melancholy, pains in
the back of the head, unaccountable fears and inability to speak. I may,
therefore, well agree with Hippocrates that if menstruation be
suppressed, many dangerous diseases will follow.



CURE.

In the cure of this, and of all the other following cases, I shall
observe the following order:--The cures will be taken from surgical,
pharmaceutical and diuretical means. The suppression has a plethoric
effect, and must be removed by the evacuation; therefore we begin with
bleeding. In the middle of the menstrual period, open the liver vein,
and two days before, open the saphena in both feet; if the repletion is
not very great apply cupping glasses to the legs and thighs, although
there may be no hope of removing the suppression. As in some women, the
cotyledones are so closed up that nothing but copulation will open them,
yet it will be well to relieve the woman as much as possible by opening
the hemoroid veins by applying a leech. After bleeding let the place be
prepared and made flexible with syrup of stychas, calamint, betony,
hyssop, mugwort, horehound, fumitary, maidenhair. Bathe the parts with
camomiles, pennyroyal, savias, bay-leaves, juniper-berries, rue,
marjoram, feverfew. Take a handful each of nep, maidenhair, succory and
betony leaves and make a decoction, and take three ounces of it, syrup
of maidenhair, mugwort and succory, half an ounce of each. After she
comes out of her bath, let her drink it off. Purge with _Pill agaric,
fleybany, corb, feriae_. In this case, Galen recommends _pilulae of
caberica coloquintida_; for, as they are good for purging the bad
humours, so also they open the passages of the womb, and strengthen it
by their aromatic qualities.

If the stomach be over-loaded, let her take an emetic, yet such a one as
may work both ways, lest if it only works upwards, it should check the
humours too much. Take two drachms of trochisks of agaric, infuse this
in two ounces of oxymel in which dissolve one scruple and a half of
_electuary dissarum_, and half an ounce of _benedic laxit_. Take this as
a purge.

After the humour has been got rid of, proceed to more suitable and
stronger remedies. Take a drachm and a half of trochisk of myrrh; ten
grains of musk with the juice of smallage; make twelve pills and take
six every morning, or after supper, on going to bed. Take half an ounce
of cinnamon, two drachms each of smirutium, or rogos, valerin
aristolochia; two scruples each of astrumone root and saffron; two
drachms of spec. diambia; four scruples of trochisk of myrrh; two
scruples tartari vitriolari; make half into a powder; make lozenges with
mugwort water and sugar, and take one drachm of them every morning; or
mix a drachm of the powder with one drachm of sugar, and take it in
white wine. Take two drachms each of prepared steel and spec. hair; one
scruple each of borax and spec. of myrrh, with savine juice; make it up
into eighty-eight lozenges and take three every other day before dinner.
Take one scruple of castor, half a drachm of wild carrot seed with syrup
of mugwort, and make four pills, take them in the morning fasting, for
three days following, before the usual time of purging. Take five
drachms each of agaric, aristolochia, and juice of horehound; six
drachma each of rhubarb, spikenard, aniseed, guidanum, asafoetida,
mallow-root, gentian, of the three peppers and of liquorice: make an
electuary with honey, and take three drachms for a dose. For phlegmatic
constitutions nothing can be better than the decoction of guaiacum wood
with a little disclaim, taken fasting in the morning, for twelve days
consecutively, without producing sweating.

Treat the lower parts of the body to suffumigating, pessaries, ointments
and injections; for fumigating use cinnamon, nutmeg, the berries of the
bay tree, mugwort, galbanum, molanthium, amber, etc. Make pessaries of
figs and the bruised leaves of dog's mercury, rolled up in lint, and if
a stronger one is required, make one of myrrh, opopanax, ammoniac,
galbanum, sagepanum, mithridate, agaric, coloquintida, tec. Make
injections of a decoction of origane mugwort, dog's mercury, betony, and
eggs; inject into the womb with a female syringe. Take half an ounce
each of oil of almonds, lilies, capers, camomiles; two drachms each of
laudanum and oil of myrrh; make a salve with wax, with which anoint the
place; make injections of fenugreek, camomiles, melilot, dill, marjoram,
pennyroyal, feverfew, juniper berries and calamint; but if the
suppression arises from a lack of matter, then the courses ought not to
be brought on until the spirits be raised and the amount of blood
increased; or if it arises from affections of the womb itself, as dropsy
or inflammation, then particular care must be used; but I will not lay
stress on this here, but will mention the remedies in their order.

If the retention comes from repletion or fullness, if the air be hot and
dry, take moderate exercise before meals, and very light diet and
drinks, and with your food take garden savory--thyme and origane, if it
arises from emptiness and defect of matter: if the weather be moist and
moderately hot, avoid exercise and late hours; let your food be
nourishing and easy of digestion, such as raw eggs, lamb, chickens,
almonds, milk and the like.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER III

     _Of Excessive Menstruation._


The learned say, that truth is manifested by comparing contraries, and
so, as I have above spoken of the suppression of menstruation, it is now
necessary that I should treat of excessive menstruation, which is no
less dangerous than the former. This immoderate monthly flow is defined
as a sanguineous discharge, as it consists merely of blood, wherein it
differs from the false courses or whites, of which I shall speak further
on. Secondly, it is said to proceed from the womb; for there are two
ways in which the blood issues forth; one by the internal veins of the
body of the womb (and this is properly called the monthly flow), the
other is by those veins which terminate in the neck of the matrix, which
Aetius calls haemorrhoids of the womb. In quantity, Hippocrates said, it
should be about eighteen ounces, and they should last about three days:
and when the faculties of the body are weakened by their flow, we may
take it that the discharge is inordinate. In bodies which abound in
gross humours, this immoderate flow sometimes unburdens nature of her
load and ought not to be checked without a physician's advice.



CAUSE.

The cause is either internal or external. The internal cause is
threefold; in the substance, the instrument or the power. The matter,
which is the blood, may be vitiated in two ways; first, by the heat of
the constitution, climate or season, heating the blood, whereby the
passages are dilated, and the power weakened so that it cannot retain
the blood. Secondly, by falls, blows, violent motions, rupture of the
veins, etc. The external cause may be the heat of the air, heavy
burdens, unnatural childbirth, etc.



SIGNS.

In this excessive flow the appetite is lessened, conception is checked
and all the functions weakened; the feet swell, the colour of the face
changes, and the whole body is weakened. If the flow comes from the
rupture of a vein, the body is sometimes cold, the blood flows out in
streams, suddenly, and causes great pain. If it arises from heat, and
the orifice of the vein is dilated, there is little or no pain, but yet
the blood flows faster than it does when caused by erosion, but not so
fast as it does in a rupture. If caused by erosion, the woman feels a
scalding of the passage, and it differs from the other two, in so much
as it does not flow so quickly or so freely as they do. If it is caused
by weakness of the womb, the woman feels a dislike for sexual
intercourse. Lastly, if it proceeds from the defective quality of the
blood let some of it drop into a cloth, and when it is dry, you may
judge, of the quality by the colour. If it be passionate it will be
yellow; if melancholy, it will be black, and if phlegmatic, it will be
waterish and whitish.



PROGNOSTICS.

If convulsions are joined to the flow, it is dangerous, because that
intimates that the noble parts are affected, convulsions caused by
emptiness are deadly. If they continue long, they will be very difficult
to cure, and it was one of the miracles which our Saviour Christ
wrought, to cure a woman of this disease of twelve years standing.

To conclude, if the flow be excessive, many diseases will follow, which
will be almost impossible to cure; the blood, being consumed together
with the innate heat, either morbid, dropsical, or paralytical diseases
will follow.



CURE.

The cure consists in three particulars. First, in expelling and
carrying away the blood. Secondly, in connecting and removing the
fluxibility of the matter. Thirdly, in incorporating the veins and
faculties. For the first, to get rid of the superfluous blood, open a
vein in the arm, and draw off as much blood as the strength of the
patient will allow; not all at one time, but at intervals, for by those
means the spirits are less weakened, and the reaction so much the
greater.

Apply cupping glasses to the breasts and also over the liver, and to
correct the flexibility of the matter, purgative means, moderated by
astringents, may be employed.

If it is caused by erosion, and salt phlegm, prepare with syrup of
violets, wormwood, roses, citron peel, succory, etc. Then make the
following purge:--mirabolans, half an ounce; trochisks of agaric, one
drachm; make a decoction with the plantain-water, and add syrup of roses
lax. three ounces, and make a draught.

If caused by any mental excitement, prepare the body by syrup of roses,
myrtles, sorrel and parsley, mixed with plantain-water, knot-grass and
endive. Then purge with the following draught:--Take one drachm each of
the void of mirabolans, and rhubarb, cinnamon fifteen grains; infuse for
a night in endive water; add to the strained water half an ounce of pulp
of tamarinds and of cassia, and make a draught. If the blood be
waterish as it is in dropsical subjects and flows out easily on account
of its thinness, it will be a good plan to draw off the water by purging
with agaric, elaterium and coloquintida. Sweating is also useful in this
case, as by it the noxious matter is carried off, and the motion of the
blood to other parts. To produce sweating, employ cardus water, and
mithridate, or a decoction of guaiacum and sarsaparilla. Gum guaiacum is
also a great producer of perspiration, and sarsaparilla pills, taken
every night before going to bed are also highly to be recommended. If
the blood pours out, without any evil quality in itself, then
strengthening means only should be employed, which is a thing to be done
in cases of inordinate discharge.

Take one scruple of ol. ammoniac, one drachm of treacle, half an ounce
of conserve of roses and make an electuary with syrup of myrtle, or if
the discharge be of long standing take two drachms of matrix, one drachm
of olilanum troch. de carbara, a scruple of balustium; make into a
powder and form into pills with syrup of quinces, and take one before
every meal. Take two scruples each of troch. dechambede, scoriaferri,
coral and frankincense; pound these to a fine powder, and make into
lozenges with sugar and plantain water. Asses' dung is also approved
of, whether taken inwardly with syrup of quinces or applied outwardly
with steeled water. Galen by sending the juice of it into the womb by
means of a syringe for four days consecutively, cured this immediate
flow, which could not be checked in any other way. Let the patient take
one scruple and a half of pilon in water before going to bed; make a
fumigation for the womb of mastic, frankincense and burnt frogs, adding
the hoof of a mule. Take an ounce each of the juice of knot-grass,
comfoly and quinces; a drachm of camphor; dip a piece of silk or cotton
into it and apply it to the place. Take half an ounce each of oil of
mastic, myrtle, and quinces; a drachm each of fine bole and troch.
decardas, and a sufficient quantity of dragon's blood, make an ointment
and apply it before and behind. Take an ounce and a half each of
plantain, shepherd's purse and red rose leaves; an ounce of dried mint,
and three ounces of bean flour; boil all these in plantain water and
make two plasters:--apply one before and one behind. If the blood flows
from those veins which are terminated at the neck of the matrix, then it
is not called an undue discharge of the _menses_, but haemorrhoids of
the womb. The same remedy, however, will serve for both, only the
instrumental cure will be a little different; for in uterine
haemorrhoids, the ends of the veins hang over like teats, which must
be removed by cutting, and then the veins closed with aloes, fine bole,
burnt alum, myrrh, mastic, with comfoly-juice and knot grass, laid upon
it like a plaster.

[Illustration: _Position of the Embryos in a plural conception_]

[Illustration: Process of Delivery.]

The air should be cold and dry, and all motion of the body should be
prohibited. Her diet should consist of pheasants, partridges, grouse,
rabbits, calves' feet, etc., and her drink should be mixed with the
juice of pomegranates and quinces.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER IV

     _Of the Weeping of the Womb._


The weeping of the womb is an unnatural flow of blood, coming from it in
drops, like tears, and causing violent pains in it, and occurring at no
fixed period or time. By some it is supposed to be produced by the
excessive flow of the courses, as they flow copiously and freely; this
is continued, though only little at a time, and accompanied by great
pain and difficulty of passing it, and on this account it is compared
to the strangury.

The cause is in the power, instrument or matter; in the power, on
account of its being enfeebled so that it cannot expel the blood, and
which, remaining there, makes that part of the womb grow hard, and
distends the vessels, and from that, pains in the womb arise. In the
instrument, from the narrowness of the passage. Lastly, it may be the
matter of the blood which is at fault, and which may be in too great
quantities; or the quality may be bad, so that it is thick and gross and
cannot flow out as it ought to do, but only in drops. The signs will
best be ascertained by the patient's own account, but there will be
pains in the head, stomach and back, with inflammation, difficulty of
breathing and excoriation of the matrix. If the patient's strength will
permit it, first open a vein in the arm, rub the upper parts and let a
cord be fastened tightly round the arm, so that the force of the blood
may be carried backward; then apply such things as may relax the womb,
and assuage the heat of the blood, as poultices made of bran, linseed,
mallows, dog's mercury and artiplex. If the blood be viscous and thick,
add mugwort, calamint, dictain and betony to it, and let the patient
take about the size of a nutmeg of Venic treacle, and syrup of mugwort
every morning; make an injection of aloes, dog's mercury, linseed,
groundsel, mugwort, fenugreek, with sweet almond oil.

Sometimes it is caused by wind, and then bleeding must not be had
recourse to, but instead take one ounce of syrup of feverfew; half an
ounce each of honey, syrup of roses, syrup of stachus; an ounce each of
calamint water, mugwort, betony and hyssop, and make a julep. If the
pain continues, use this purge:--Take a drachm of spec. Hitrae, half an
ounce of diacatholicon, one ounce of syrup of roses and laxative, and
make a draught with a decoction of mugwort and the four cordial flowers.
If it proceeds from weakness, she must be strengthened, but if from
grossness of blood, let the quality of it be altered, as I have shown in
the preceding chapter. Lastly, if her bowels are confined, move them by
an injection of a decoction of camomiles, betony, feverfew, mallows,
linseed, juniper-berries, cumminseed, aniseed, melilot, and add to it
half an ounce of diacatholicon; two drachms of hiera piera, an ounce
each of honey and oil and a drachm and a half of sol. nitre. The patient
must abstain from salt, acid and windy food.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER V

     _The false Courses, or Whites._


From the womb, not only the menstruous blood proceeds, but many
evacuations, which were summed up by the ancients under the title of
_rhoos gunaikeios_,[6] which is the distillation of a variety of corrupt
humours through the womb, which flow from the whole body or a part of
it, varying both in courses and colour.



CAUSE.

The cause is either promiscuously in the whole body, by a cacochymia; or
weakness of it, or in some of its parts, as in the liver, which by a
weakness of the blood producing powers, cause a production of corrupt
blood, which then is reddish. Sometimes, when the fall is sluggish in
its action, and does not get rid of those superfluities engendered in
the liver, the matter is yellowish. Sometimes it is in the spleen when
it does not cleanse the blood of the dregs and rejected particles, and
then the matter which flows forth is blackish. It may also come from a
cold in the head, or from any other decayed or corrupted member, but if
the discharge be white, the cause lies either in the stomach or loins.
In the stomach, by some crude substance there, and vitiated by grief,
melancholy or some other mental disturbance; for otherwise, if the
matter were only crude phlegm and noways corrupt, being taken into the
liver it might be converted into the blood; for phlegm in the ventricle
is called nourishment half digested; but being corrupt, though sent into
the liver it cannot be turned into nutriment, for the second decoction
in the stomach cannot correct that which the first corrupted; and
therefore the liver sends it to the womb, which can neither digest nor
reject it, and so it is voided out with the same colour which it had in
the ventricle. The cause may also be in the veins being overheated
whereby the spermatical matter flows out because of its thinness. The
external causes may be moistness of the air, eating bad food, anger,
grief, sloth, too much sleep, costiveness.

The signs are bodily disturbances, shortness of breathing, and foul
breath, a distaste for food, swollen eyes and feet, and low spirits;
discharges of different colours, as red, black, green, yellow and white
from the womb. It differs from the flowing of the courses and from too
abundant menstruation, in so far as it keeps no certain period, and is
of many colours, all of which spring from blood.

If the flux be phlegmatic, it will last long and be hard to cure, but if
sickness or diarrhoea supervene, it carries off the humour and cures the
disease. If it is abundant it does not last so long, but it is more
dangerous, for it will cause a cleft in the neck of the womb, and
sometimes also an excoriation of the matrix; if melancholy, it must be
dangerous and obstinate. The flux of the haemorrhoids, however, assists
the cure.

If the matter which flows out be reddish, open a vein in the arm; if
not, apply ligatures to the arms and shoulders. Galen boasts that he
cured the wife of Brutus, who was suffering from this disease, by
rubbing the upper part with honey.

If it is caused by the brain, take syrup of betony and marjoram. Give as
a purgative _Pill. coch._ or _Agaric_; make nasalia of sage, or hyssop
juice, betony, flagella, with one drop of oil of _Elect. Dianth. Rosat.
Diambrae, diamosci dulus_, one drachm of each, and make lozenges to be
taken every morning and evening. _Auri Alexandrina_, half a drachm at
night on going to bed. If these things have no effect, try suffumigation
and plasters, as they are prescribed above.

If it arises from crudities of the stomach or from a cold, disordered
liver, take a decoction of _lignum sanctum_ every morning, purge with
_pill de agaric, de hermadact, de hiera, diacolinthis, foetid-agrigatio_;
take two drachms of elect. aromet-roses, one scruple each of dried
citron peel, nutmeg, long pepper; one drachm of draglanga; half a
scruple each of _fantalum album_, ling, aloes; six ounces of sugar, with
mint water: make lozenges of it, and take them before meals. If there be
repletion besides the rigidity of the liver, purging by means of an
emetic is to be recommended, for which take three drachms of the
electuary diasatu. Galen allows diuretical remedies, such as _aqua
petrofolma_.

If the discharge be angry, treat it with syrup of roses, violets, endive
and succory; give a purge of mirabolans, manna, rhubarb, and cassia.
Take two drachms of rhubarb, one of aniseed, and one scruple and a half
of cinnamon; infuse them into six ounces of syrup of prunes, and add one
ounce of strained manna, and take it in the morning as required. Take
one drachm each of the following drugs: _diatonlanton, diacorant,
diarthod, abbaris, dyacydomei_, four ounces of sugar, and make into
lozenges with plantain water. If the gall be sluggish, and does not stir
the bowels, give warm injections of a decoction of the four mollifying
herbs, with honey of roses and aloes.

If the flow be bilious, treat the patient with syrup of maiden-hair;
epithynium, polypody, borage, buglos, fumitary, hart's tongue and
syrups, bisantius, which must be made without vinegar, else it will
assist the disease instead of nature, for melancholy is increased by the
use of vinegar, and both Hippocrates, Silvius and Avenzoar reject it as
injurious for the womb, and therefore not to be used internally in
uterine diseases. _Pilulae sumariae, pilulae lud. delupina, lazuli
diosena_ and _confetio hamec_ are purges of bile. Take two ounces of
pounded prunes, one drachm of senna, a drachm and a half each of
epithimium, polypody and fumitary, and an ounce of sour dates, and make
a decoction with endive water; take four ounces of it and add three
drachms of hamesech and three of manna. Or take a scruple each of _pil.
indic. foetid, agarici, trochis ati_; one scruple of rhubarb pills, six
grains of lapis lazuli, make into pills with epithimium, and take them
once a week. Take three drachms of elect. loetificans. Galen three
drachms, a drachm each of _diamargaritum, calimi, diamosci dulus_; a
drachm of conserve of borage, violets and burglos; one drachm of candied
citron peel, seven ounces of sugar, and make into lozenges with rose
water.

Lastly let the womb be cleansed of all corrupt matter, and then be
strengthened. In order to purify it, make injections of the decoction of
betony, feverfew, spikenard, bismust, mercury and sage, and add two
ounces each of sugar and sweet almond oil; pessaries may also be made of
silk or cotton, softened in the juice of the above mentioned herbs.

You must prepare trochisks, thus, to strengthen the womb. Take one ounce
each of mugwort, feverfew, myrrh, amber, mace, storax, ling aloes and
red roses, and make lozenges or troches with mucilage of tragacanth;
throw one of them on to hot coals and fumigate the womb with red wine,
in which mastic, fine bole, malustia and red roots have been decocted;
anoint the matrix with oil of quinces and myrtles, and apply a plaster
to it, for the womb; and let the woman take _diamosdum dulco_, _aract_,
and _slemoticum_ every morning.

A drying diet is recommended as best, because in these cases the body
abounds with phlegmatic and crude humours. On this account, Hippocrates
advises the patient to go to bed supperless. Her food should consist of
partridges, pheasant and grouse, roasted rather than boiled, too much
sleep must be prohibited whilst moderate exercise is very advisable.



FOOTNOTES:

[6] The female flowing.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER VI

     _The Suffocation of the Mother._


This, which if simply considered, will be found to be merely the cause
of an effect, is called in English, "the suffocation of the mother," not
because the womb is strangled, but because by its retraction towards the
midriff and stomach, which presses it up, so that the instrumental cause
of respiration, the midriff, is suffocated, and acting with the brain,
cause the animating faculty, the efficient cause of respiration, also to
be interrupted, when the body growing cold, and the action weakened, the
woman falls to the ground as if she were dead.

Some women remain longer in those hysterical attacks than others, and
Rabbi Moses mentions some who lay in the fit for two days. Rufus writes
of one who continued in it for three days and three nights, and revived
at the end of the three days. And I will give you an example so that we
may take warning by the example of other men. Paroetus mentions a
Spanish woman who was suddenly seized with suffocation of the womb, and
was thought to be dead. Her friends, for their own satisfaction, sent
for a surgeon in order to have her opened, and as soon as he began to
make an incision, she began to move, and come to herself again with
great cries, to the horror and surprise of all those present.

In order that the living may be distinguished from the dead, old writers
prescribe three experiments. The first is, to lay a feather on the
mouth, and by its movements you may judge whether the patient be alive
or dead; the second is, to place a glass of water on the breast, and if
it moves, it betokens life; the third is, to hold a bright, clean,
looking-glass to the mouth and nose, and if the glass be dimmed with a
little moisture on it, it betokens life. These three experiments are
good, but you must not depend upon them too much, for though the feather
and the glass do not move, and the looking-glass continues bright and
clear, yet it is not a necessary consequence that she is dead. For the
movement of the lungs, by which breathing is produced, may be checked,
so that she cannot breathe, and yet internal heat may remain, which is
not evident by the motion of the breast or lungs, but lies hidden in the
heart and arteries.

Examples of this we find in flies and swallows, who seem dead to all
outward appearances, breathless and inanimate, and yet they live by that
heat which is stored up in the heart and inward arteries. At the
approach of summer, however, the internal heat, being restored to the
outer parts, they are then brought to life again, out of their sleeping
trance.

Those women, therefore, who apparently die suddenly, and from no visible
cause, should not be buried until the end of three days, lest the living
be buried instead of the dead.



CURE.

The part affected is the womb, of which there are two motions--natural
and symptomatic. The natural motion is, when the womb attracts the male
seed, or expels the infant, and the symptomatical motion, of which we
are speaking, is a convulsive drawing up of the womb.

The cause is usually in the retention of the seed, or in the suppression
of the menses, which causes a repletion of the corrupt humours of the
womb, from which a windy refrigeration arises, which produces a
convulsion of the ligaments of the womb. And just as it may arise from
humidity or repletion, so also, as it is a convulsion, it may be caused
by dryness or emptiness. Lastly also, it may arise from abortion or from
difficult childbirth.



SIGNS.

On the approach of suffocation of the womb the face becomes pale, there
is a weakness of the legs, shortness of breathing, frigidity of the
whole body, with a spasm in the throat, and then the woman falls down,
bereft of sense and motion; the mouth of the womb is closed up, and
feels hard when touched with the finger. When the paroxysm or the fit is
over, she opens her eyes, and as she feels an oppression of the stomach,
she tries to vomit. And lest any one should be deceived into taking one
disease for another, I will show how it may be distinguished from those
diseases which most resemble it.

It differs from apoplexy, as it comes without the patient crying out; in
hysterical fits also the sense of feeling is not altogether destroyed
and lost, as it is in apoplexy; and it differs from epilepsy, as the
eyes are not distorted, and there is spongy froth from the mouth. That
convulsive motion also, which is frequently accompanied by symptoms of
suffocation, is not universal, as it is in epilepsy, but there is some
convulsion, but that without any violent agitation. In syncope both
breathing and the pulse fail, the face grows pale, and the woman faints
suddenly; but in hysterical attacks there are usually both breathing
and pulse, though these are indistinct; the face is red and she has a
forewarning of the approaching fit. It cannot, however, be denied that
syncope may accompany this feeling of suffocation. Lastly, it can be
distinguished from lethargy by the pulse, which is rapid in the former,
but weak in the latter.



CURE.

In the cure of this affection, two things must be taken care of:--_In
the first place_, nature must be stimulated to expel these hurtful
humours which obscure the senses, so that the woman may be brought back
from that sleepy fit. _Secondly_, during the intervals of the attack,
proper remedies must be employed, in order to remove the cause.

To stimulate nature, apply cupping-glasses to the hips and navel: apply
ligatures to the thighs, rub the extremities with salt, mustard and
vinegar, and shout and make a great noise in her ears. Hold asafoetida
to the nose, or sacopenium steeped in vinegar; make her sneeze by
blowing castor-powder, white pepper and hellebore up her nose; hold
burnt feathers, hair, leather, or anything else with a strong, stinking
smell under her nose, for bad odours are unpleasant to nature, and the
animal spirits so strive against them, that the natural heat is restored
by their means. The brain is sometimes so oppressed, that it becomes
necessary to burn the outer skin of the head with hot oil, or with a hot
iron, and strong injections and suppositories are useful. Take a handful
each of sage, calamint, horehound, feverfew, marjoram, betony and
hyssop; half an ounce of aniseed; two drachma each of coloquintida,
white hellebore and salgem; boil these in two quarts of water till
reduced to half; add two ounces of castor oil and two drachms of hiera
piera and make an injection of it. Or take two ounces of boiled honey,
half a scruple of spurge, four grains of coloquint, two grains of
hellebore and drachm of salt; make a suppository. Hippocrates mentions a
hysterical woman who could only be relieved of the paroxysms by pouring
cold water on her: yet this is a strange cure, and should only be
administered in the heat of summer, when the sun is in the tropic of
Cancer.

If it be caused by the retention and corruption of the seed, let the
mid-wife take oil of lilies, marjoram and bay leaves, and dissolve two
grains of civet in them, and the same quantity of musk, and at the
moment of the paroxysm let her dip her finger into the mixture and put
it into the neck of the womb, and tickle and rub it with it.

When the fit is over, proceed to remove the cause. If it arises from
suppression of the menses, look in Chapter XI, p. 102, for the cure. If
it arises from the retention of the seed, a good husband will administer
the cure, but those who cannot honourably obtain that remedy, must use
such means as will dry up and diminish the seed, as diaciminum,
diacalaminthes, etc. The seed of the agnus castus is highly valued as a
draught, whether taken inwardly, applied outwardly or used as a
suffumigation. It was held in high esteem by the Athenian women, for by
its means they remained as pure vessels and preserved their chastity, by
only strewing it on the bed on which they lay, and hence the name of
_agnus castus_, which was given to it, as denoting its effects. Make an
issue on the inside of each leg, four inches below the knee, and then
make lozenges of two scruples of agric, half a scruple each of wild
carrot seed and ligne aloes; three drachms of washed turpentine, and
make a bolus with a conserve of flowers. Eight drachms of castor taken
in white wine are very useful in this case, or you may make pills of it
with dog's tooth, and take them on going to bed. Take an ounce of white
briony root dried and cut up like carrots, put it into a little wine and
place it on the fire, and drink when warm. Take one scruple each of
myrrh, castor and asafoetida; four grains each of saffron and rue-seed,
and make eight pills and take two every night on going to bed.

Galen, from his own experience, recommends powdered agaric, of which he
frequently gave one scruple in white wine. Put a head of bruised garlic
on the navel at bed time, and fasten it with a swathing band. Make a
girdle for the waist of galbanum, and also a plaster for the stomach,
and put civet and musk on one part of it, which must be applied to the
navel. Take two drachms each of pulvis benedict, and of troches of
agaric, a sufficient quantity of mithridate, and make two pessaries, and
that will purge the matrix of wind and phlegm; foment the private parts
with salad oil in which some feverfew and camomiles have been boiled.
Take a handful of roseleaves and two scruples of cloves, sew them in a
little cloth and boil them for ten minutes in malmsey; then apply them,
as hot as they can be borne, to the mouth of the womb, but do not let
the smell go up her nose. A dry diet must still be adhered to and the
moderate use of Venus is advisable. Let her eat aniseed biscuits
instead of bread, and roast meat instead of boiled.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER VII

     _Of the Descending or Falling of the Womb._


The descent of the womb is caused by a relaxation of the ligatures,
whereby the matrix is carried backward, and in some women it protrudes
to the size of an egg, and there are two kinds of this, distinguished by
a descending and a precipitation. The descending of the womb is, when it
sinks down to the entrance of the private parts, and appears either very
little or not at all, to the eye. Its precipitation is when it is turned
inside out like a purse, and hangs out between the thighs, like a
cupping glass.



CAUSE.

This is either external or internal. The external cause is difficult
childbirth, violent pulling away, or inexperience in drawing away the
child, violent coughing, sneezing, falls, blows, and carrying heavy
burdens. The internal cause, is generally the flow of too much moisture
into these parts, which hinders the operation of the womb, whereby the
ligaments by which the womb is supported are relaxed. The particular
cause, however, lies in the retention of the _semen_, or in the
suppression of the monthly courses.



SIGNS.

The principal gut and the bladder are often so crushed, that the passage
of both evacuations is hindered. If the urine flows out white and thick,
and the midriff is interfered with, the loins suffer, the private parts
are in pain, and the womb descends to them, or else comes clean out.



PROGNOSTICS.

If an old woman is thus affected, the cure is very difficult, because it
weakens the womb, and therefore, though it may be put back into its
proper place, yet it is apt to get displaced again, by a very slight
amount of illness. And also with younger women, if this disease is
inveterate, and if it is caused by putrefaction of the nerves, it is
incurable.



CURE.

The womb, being placed by nature between the straight gut and the
bladder, ought not to be put back again until the powers of both are
excited. Now that nature is relieved of her burden, let the woman be
laid on her back so that her legs may be higher than her head; let her
feet be drawn up towards her private parts, and her knees spread open.
Then apply oil of sweet almonds and lilies, or a decoction of mallows,
beet, fenugreek and linseed, to the swelling; when the inflammation is
reduced, let the midwife rub her hand with oil of mastic, and restore
the womb to its proper place. When the matrix is up, the patient's
position must be changed. Her legs must be put out quite straight and
laid together, and apply six cupping glasses to her breast and navel.
Boil feverfew, mugwort, red rose leaves and comfrey in red wine; make a
suffumigation for the matrix, and apply sweet scents to her nose. When
she comes out of her bath, give her an ounce of syrup of feverfew with a
drachm of dog's tooth (_mithridate_). Take three drachms each of
laudanum and mastic, and make a plaster for the navel of it, and then
make pessaries of asafoetida, saffron, comfrey, and mastic, adding a
little castor oil.--Parius in such cases makes his pessaries only of
cork, shaped like a small egg; he covered them with wax and mastic
dissolved together, and fastening them to a thread, he put them into the
womb.

The immediate danger being now removed and the matrix returned to its
natural place the remote cause must be got rid of. If she be of full
habit of body open a vein, after preparing her with syrup of betony,
calamint, hyssop and feverfew. Give a purge, and if the stomach be
oppressed with any crude matter relieve it by emetics and by sudorifics
of lignum sanctum and sassafras taken twenty days consecutively, which
dry up the superfluous moisture, and consequently suppress the cause of
the disease.

The air should be hot and dry, and her diet hot and attenuating. Let her
abstain from dancing, jumping, sneezing, as well as from all mental and
bodily emotions, eat sparingly, not drink much, and be moderate in her
sleep.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER VIII

     _Of the Inflammation of the Womb._


The phlegmon, or inflammation of the matrix, is a humour which affects
the whole womb, and is accompanied by unnatural heat, by obstruction and
by an accumulation of corrupt blood.



CAUSE.

The cause of this affection is suppression of the courses, fullness of
body, the immoderate use of sexual intercourse, frequent handling the
genitals, difficult child-birth, violent motions of the body, falls,
blows, to which may be added, the use of strong pessaries, whereby the
womb is frequently inflamed, cupping glasses, also, fastened to the
_pubis_ and _hypogastrium_, draw the humours of the womb.



SIGNS.

The signs are pains in the lower parts of the body and head, humours,
sickness, coldness in the knees, throbbing in the neck, palpitation of
the heart. Often, also, there is shortness of breath because of the
heart which is close to the midriff, and the breasts sympathising with
the swollen and painful womb. Besides this, if the front of the matrix
be inflamed, the privates suffer, and the urine is suppressed, or only
flows with difficulty. If the hinder part be inflamed, the loins and
back suffer, and the bowels are very costive; if the right side be
inflamed, the right hip suffers, and the right leg is heavy and moves
slowly, so that at times she seems almost lame. If, however, the left
side of the womb be inflamed, then the left hip suffers and the left leg
is weaker than the right. If the neck of the womb is affected, by
putting her finger in, the midwife feels that its mouth is contracted
and closed up, and that it is hard round it.



CURE.

In the cure, first of all, let the humours which flow to the womb be
expelled. To effect this, after the bowels have been loosened by cooling
clysters bleeding will be necessary. Therefore, open a vein in the arm,
if she is not with child; the day after strike the saphena in both feet,
fasten ligatures and cupping glasses to the arm, and rub the upper part.
Purge gently with cassia, rhubarb, senna and myrobalan. Take one drachm
of senna, a scruple of aniseed, myrobalan, half an ounce, with a
sufficient quantity of barley water. Make a decoction and dissolve syrup
of succory in it, and two ounces of rhubarb; pound half an ounce of
cassia with a few drops of oil of aniseed and make a draught. At the
commencement of the disease, anoint the private parts and loins with oil
of roses and quinces: make plasters of plantain, linseed, barley meal,
melilot, fenugreek, white of eggs, and if the pain be intense, a little
laudanum; foment the genitals with a decoction of poppy-heads, purslace,
knot-grass and water-lilies. Make injections of goat's milk, rose water,
clarified whey and honey of roses. When the disease is on a decline, use
injections of sage, linseed, mugwort, pennyroyal, horehound, fenugreek,
and anoint the lower parts of the stomach with oil of camomiles and
violets.

Take four ounces each of lily and mallow roots, a handful of dog's
mercury, a handful and a half each of mugwort, feverfew, camomile
flowers and melilot, bruise the herbs and roots, and boil them in a
sufficient quantity of milk; then add two ounces each of fresh butter,
oil of camomiles and lilies, with a sufficient quantity of bran, make
two plasters, and apply one before and the other behind.

If the tumour cannot be removed, but seems inclined to suppurate, take
three drachms each of fenugreek, mallow roots, boiled figs, linseed,
barley meal, dove's dung and turpentine; half a drachm of deer's suet,
half a scruple of opium and make a plaster of wax.

Take bay leaves, sage, hyssop, camomiles, and mugwort, and make an
infusion in water.

Take half a handful of wormwood and betony and half a pint each of white
wine and milk, boil them until reduced to half; then take four ounces of
this decoction and make an injection, but you must be careful that the
humours are not brought down into the womb. Take three drachms each of
roast figs, and bruised dog's mercury; three drachms each of turpentine
and duck's grease, and two grains of opium; make a pessary with wax.

The room must be kept cool, and all motions of the body, especially of
the lower parts, must be prohibited. Wakefulness is to be recommended,
for humours are carried inward by sleep, and thus inflammation is
increased. Eat sparingly, and drink only barley water or clarified whey,
and eat chickens and chicken broth, boiled with endive, succory, sorrel,
bugloss and mallows.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER IX

     _Of Scirrhous Tumours, or Hardness of the Womb._


A _scirrhus_, or a hard unnatural swelling of the matrix is generally
produced by neglected, or imperfectly cured phlegm, which, insensibly,
hinders the functions of the womb, and predisposes the whole body to
listlessness.



CAUSE.

One cause of this disease may be ascribed to want of judgment on the
part of the physician, as many empirics when attending to inflammation
of the womb, chill the humour so much that it can neither pass backward
nor forward, and hence, the matter being condensed, turns into a hard,
stony substance. Other causes may be suppression of the menses,
retention of the _Lochein_, commonly called the after purging; eating
decayed meat, as in the disordered longing after the _pleia_ to which
pregnant women are often subject. It may, however, also proceed from
obstructions and ulcers in the matrix or from some evil affections of
the stomach or spleen.

If the bottom of the womb be affected, she feels, as it were, a heavy
burden representing a mole,[7] yet differing from it, in that the
breasts are attenuated, and the whole body grows less. If the neck of
the womb be affected, no outward humours will appear; its mouth is
retracted and feels hard to the touch, nor can the woman have sexual
intercourse without great pain.



PROGNOSTICS.

Confirmed scirrhus is incurable, and will turn to cancer or incurable
dropsy, and when it ends in cancer it proves fatal, because as the
innate heat of these parts is almost smothered, it can hardly be
restored again.



CURE.

Where there is repletion, bleeding is advisable, therefore open a vein
in one arm and in both feet, more especially if the menses are
suppressed.

Treat the humours with syrup of borage, succory made with a poultice,
and then take the following pills, according to the patient's strength.

Hiera piera six drachms, two and a half drachms each of black hellebore
and polypody; a drachm and a half each of agaric, lapis lazuli, sal
Indiae, coloquintida, mix them and make two pills. After purging,
mollify the hardness as follows:--the privy parts and the neck of the
womb with an ointment of decalthea and agrippa; or take two drachms each
of opopanax, bdellium, ammoniac and myrrh, and half a drachm of saffron;
dissolve the gum in oil of lilies and sweet almond and make an ointment
with wax and turpentine. Apply diacatholicon ferellia below the navel,
and make infusions of figs, mugwort, mallows, pennyroyal, althea, fennel
roots, melilot, fenugreek and the four mollifying herbs, with oil of
dill, camomiles and lilies dissolved in it. Take three drachms of gum
bdellium, put the stone pyrites on the coals, and let her take the fumes
into her womb. Foment the privy parts with a decoction of the roots and
leaves of dane wort. Take a drachm each of gum galbanum and opopanax,
half an ounce each of juice of dane wort and mucilage of fenugreek, an
ounce of calve's marrow, and a sufficient quantity of wax, and make a
pessary. Or make a pessary of lead only, dip it in the above mentioned
things, and put it up.

The atmosphere must be kept temperate, and gross and salt meats such as
pork, bull beef, fish and old cheese, must be prohibited.



FOOTNOTES:

[7] _Mole_: "A somewhat shapeless, compact fleshy mass occurring in the
uterus, due to the retention and continued life of the whole or a part
of the foetal envelopes, after the death of the foetus (a _maternal or
true mole_); or being some other body liable to be mistaken for this, or
perhaps a polypus or false mole." (_Whitney's Century Dictionary_.)

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER X

     _Of Dropsy of the Womb._


Uterine dropsy is an unnatural swelling, caused by the collection of
wind or phlegm in the cavity, membranes or substance of the womb, on
account of the want of innate heat and of sufficient alimentation, and
so it turns into an excrescence. The causes are, too much cold and
moisture of the milt and liver, immoderate drinking, eating
insufficiently cooked meat, all of which by causing repletion, overpower
the natural heat. It may likewise be caused by undue menstruation, or by
any other immoderate evacuation. To these may be added abortions,
subcutaneous inflammations and a hardened swelling of the womb.



SIGNS.

The signs of this affection are as follows:--The lower parts of the
stomach, with the genitals, are swollen and painful; the feet swell, the
natural colour of the face is lost, the appetite becomes depraved, and
there is a consequent heaviness of the whole body. If the woman turns
over in bed a noise like flowing water is heard, and sometimes water is
discharged from the womb. If the swelling is caused by wind and the
stomach feels hot, it sounds like a drum; the bowels rumble, and the
wind escapes through the neck of the womb with a murmuring noise. This
affection may be distinguished from true conception in many ways, as
will be shown in the chapter on _conception_. It is distinguished from
common dropsy, by the lower parts of the stomach being most swollen.
Again, it does not appear so injurious in this blood-producing
capability, nor is the urine so pale, nor the face so altered. The upper
parts are also not so reduced, as in usual dropsy.



PROGNOSTICS.

This affection foretells the ruin of the natural functions, by that
peculiar sympathy it has with the liver, and that, therefore,
_kathydria_, or general dropsy will follow.



CURE.

In the cure of this disease, imitate the practice of Hippocrates, and
first mitigate the pain with fomentations of melilot, dog's mercury,
mallows, linseed, camomiles and althoea. Then let the womb be prepared
with syrup of stoebis, hyssop, calamint, mugwort, with distilled water,
a decoction of elder, marjoram, sage, origan, spearage, pennyroyal, and
betony. Purge with senna, agaric, rhubarb, and claterium. Take spicierum
hier, a scruple each of rhubarb, agaric lozenges, and make into pills
with iris juice.

When diseases arise from moistness, purge with pills, and in those
affections which are caused by emptiness or dryness, purge by means of a
draught. Apply cupping glasses to the stomach and also to the navel,
especially if the swelling be flatulent. Put a seton on to the inside of
each leg, the width of a hand below the knee. Take two drachms each of
sparganium, diambrae, diamolet, diacaliminti, diacinamoni, myrrh
lozenges, and a pound of sugar; make these into lozenges with betony
water, and take them two hours before meals. Apply a little bag of
camomiles, cummin and melilot boiled in oil of rue, to the bottom of the
stomach as hot as it can be borne; anoint the stomach and the privates
with unguent agripp, and unguent aragon. Mix iris oil with it, and cover
the lower part of the stomach with a plaster of bay berries, or a
cataplasm made of cummin, camomiles, briony root, adding cows' and
goats' dung.

Our modern medical writers ascribe great virtues to tobacco-water,
injected into the womb by means of a clyster. Take a handful each of
balm of southernwood, origanum, wormwood, calamint, bay berries and
marjoram, and four drachms of juniper berries; make a decoction of these
in water, and use this for fomentations and infusions. Make pessaries of
storax, aloes, with the roots of dictam, aristolochia and gentian, but
instead of this you may use the pessary prescribed at the end of Chapter
XVII. Let her take aromatic electuary, disatyrion and candied eringo
roots, every morning.

The air must be hot and dry, moderate exercise is to be taken and too
much sleep prohibited. She may eat the flesh of partridges, larks,
grouse, hares, rabbits, etc., and let her drink diluted urine.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER XI

     _Of Moles[8] and False Conceptions._


This disease may be defined as an inarticulate shapeless piece of flesh,
begotten in the womb as if it were true conception. In this definition
we must note two things: (1) because a mole is said to be inarticulate
or jointless, and without shape, it differs from monstrosities which are
both _formata_ and _articulata_; (2) it is said to be, as it were a true
conception, which makes a difference between a true conception, and a
mole, and this difference holds good in three ways. First, in its genus,
because a mole cannot be said to be an animal: secondly, in the species,
because it has not a human figure and has not the character of a man;
thirdly, in the individual, for it has no affinity to the parent, either
in the whole body, or in any particular part of it.



CAUSE.

There is a great difference of opinion amongst learned writers as to the
cause of this affection. Some think, that if the woman's seed goes into
the womb, and not the man's, that the mole is produced thereby. Others
declare that it springs from the menstruous blood, but if these two
things were granted, then virgins, by having their courses or through
nocturnal pollutions, might be liable to the same things, which none
have ever been yet. The true cause of this fleshy mole is due both to
the man and from the menstruous blood in the woman both mixing together
in the cavity of the womb. Nature finding herself weak there (and yet
wishing to propagate her species), labours to bring forth a defective
conception rather than nothing and instead of a living creature produces
a lump of flesh.



SIGNS.

The signs of a mole are these. The _menses_ are suppressed, the appetite
becomes depraved, the breasts swell and the stomach becomes inflated and
hard. So far the symptoms in a pregnant woman and in one that has a mole
are the same, but now this is how they differ. The first sign of
difference is in the movements of a mole. It may be felt moving in the
womb before the third month, whereas an infant cannot be so felt; yet
this motion cannot proceed from any intelligent power in the mole, but
from the capabilities of the womb, and of the seminal vigour,
distributed through the substance of the mole, for it does not live an
animal, but a vegetable life, like a plant. _Secondly_, in a mole the
stomach swells suddenly, but in true conception it is first contracted,
and then rises by degrees. _Thirdly_, if the stomach is pressed with the
hand, the mole gives way, and returns to its former position as soon as
the hand is removed. But a child in the womb does not move immediately
though pressed with the hand, and when the hand is removed it returns
slowly or not at all. _Lastly_, no child continues in the womb more than
eleven months, but a mole continues for four or five years, more or
less, sometimes according as it is fastened to the matrix; and I have
known a mole pass away in four or five months. If, however, it remains
until the eleventh month, the woman's legs grow weak and the whole body
wastes away, but the stomach still increases, which makes some women
think that they are dropsical, though there is no reason for it, for in
dropsy the legs swell and grow big, but in a mole they wither and fall
away.



CURE.

In the school of Hippocrates we are taught that bleeding causes
abortion, by taking all the nourishment which should preserve the life
of the embryo. In order, therefore, that this faulty conception may be
deprived of that nourishing sap by which it lives, open the liver vein
and saphena in both feet, apply cupping glasses to the loins and sides
of the stomach, and when that has been done, let the uterine parts be
first softened, and then the expulsive powers be stimulated to get rid
of the burden.

In order to relax the ligatures of the mole, take three handfuls of
mallows with their roots, two handfuls each of camomiles, melilot,
pellitory of the wall, violet leaves, dog's mercury, fennel roots,
parsley, and one pound each of linseed and fenugreek; boil them in oil
and let the patient sit in it up to her navel. When she comes out of her
bath, she should anoint her private parts and loins with the following
ointment:--"Take one ounce each of oil of camomiles, lilies and sweet
almonds: half an ounce each of fresh butter, laudanum and ammoniac, and
make an ointment with oil of lilies. Or, instead of this, you may use
unguentum agrippae or dialthea. Take a handful of dog's mercury and
althea roots; half a handful of flos brochae ursini; six ounces of
linseed and barley meal. Boil all these together in honey and water and
make a plaster, and make pessaries of gum galbanum, bdellium, ammoniac,
figs, pig's fat and honey.

After the ligaments of the mole are loosened, let the expulsive powers
be stimulated to expel the mole, and for doing this, all those drugs may
be used which are adapted to bring on the courses. Take one ounce of
myrrh lozenges, half an ounce each of castor, astrolachia, gentian and
dittany and make them into a powder, and take one drachm in four ounces
of mugwort water. Take calamint, pennyroyal, betony, hyssop, sage,
horehound, valerian, madder and savine; make a decoction in water and
take three ounces of it, with one and a half ounces of feverfew. Take
three scruples each of mugwort, myrrh, gentian and pill. coch.; a drachm
each of rue, pennyroyal and opopanax, and the same of asafoetida,
cinnamon, juniper-berries and borage, and make into pills with savine
juice, to be taken every morning. Make an infusion of hyssop, bay
leaves, bay berries, calamint, camomiles, mugwort and savine. Take two
scruples each of sacopenium, mugwort, savine, cloves, nutmeg, bay
berries; one drachm of galbanum; one scruple each of hiera piera and
black hellebore, and make a pessary with turpentine.

But if these medicaments are not procurable, then the mole must be
pulled out by means of an instrument called the _pes gryphis_,[9] which
may be done without much danger if it be performed by a skilful surgeon.
After she has been delivered of the mole (because the woman will have
lost much blood already), let the flow of blood be stopped as soon as
possible.

Apply cupping glasses to the shoulders and ligatures to the arms, and if
this be not effective, open the liver vein in the arm.

The atmosphere of the room must be kept tolerably dry and warm, and she
must be put on a dry diet, to soothe the system; she must, however,
drink white wine.



FOOTNOTES:

[8] _Mole_: "A somewhat shapeless, compact fleshy mass occurring in the
uterus, due to the retention and continued life of the whole or a part
of the foetal envelopes, after the death of the foetus (_a maternal or
true mole_); or being some other body liable to be mistaken for this, or
perhaps a polypus or false mole." (_Whitney's Century Dictionary_.)

[9] _Griffin's claw_, a peculiar hooked instrument.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER XII

     _Of Conception and its Signs, and How a Woman may know whether it
     be Male or Female._


Ignorance often makes women the murderesses of the fruit of their own
body, for many, having conceived and finding themselves out of order,
and not rightly knowing the cause, go to the shop of their own conceit
and take whatever they think fit, or else (as the custom is) they send
to the doctor for a remedy, and he, not perceiving the cause of their
trouble, for nothing can be diagnosed accurately by the urine,
prescribes what he thinks best; perhaps some diuretic or cathartic,
which destroy the embryo. Therefore Hippocrates says, it is necessary
that women should be instructed in the signs of conception, so that the
parent as well as the child may be saved from danger. I shall,
therefore, lay down some rules, by which every woman may know whether
she is pregnant or not, and the signs will be taken from the woman, from
her urine, from the child and from experiments.



SIGNS.

The first day after conception, she feels a slight quivering and
chilliness throughout her body; there is a tickling of the womb and a
little pain in the lower parts of her stomach. Ten or twelve days after
she feels giddy and her eyes dim and with circles round them; the
breasts swell and grow hard, with some pain and pricking in them, whilst
the stomach rises and sinks again by degrees, and there is a hardness
about the navel. The nipples grow red, the heart beats unusually
strongly, the natural appetite abates, and the woman has a craving after
strange food. The neck of the womb is contracted, so that it can
scarcely be felt when the finger is put in. And the following is an
infallible sign; she is alternately in high spirits and melancholy; the
monthly courses cease without any apparent cause, the evacuations from
the bowels are retained unusually long, by the womb pressing on the
large gut, and her desire for sexual intercourse is diminished. The
surest sign is taken from the infant, which begins to move in the womb
in the third or fourth month, and not in the manner of a mole, mentioned
above, from side to side like a stone, but gently, as may be perceived
by applying the hand cold upon the stomach.



SIGNS TAKEN FROM THE URINE.

The best writers affirm that the water of a pregnant woman is white and
has little specks in it, like those in a sunbeam, ascending and
descending in it, of an opal colour, and when the sediment is disturbed
by shaking the urine, it looks like carded wool. In the middle of
gestation it turns yellow, then red and lastly black, with a red film.
At night on going to bed, let her drink water and honey, and if
afterwards she feels a beating pain in her stomach and about the navel,
she has conceived. Or let her take the juice of cardius, and if she
brings it up again, that is a sign of conception. Throw a clean needle
into the woman's urine, put it into a basin and let it stand all night.
If it is covered with red spots in the morning, she has conceived, but
if it has turned black and rusty, she has not.



SIGNS TAKEN FROM THE SEX, TO SHOW WHETHER IT BE A MALE OR FEMALE.

If it is a male, the right breast swells first, the right eye is
brighter than the left, the face is high-coloured, because the colour is
such as the blood is, and as the male is conceived of purer blood and of
more perfect seed than the female, red specks in the urine, and making a
sediment, show that a male has been conceived, but if they are white, a
female. Put the urine of the woman into a glass bottle, let it stand
tightly stoppered for two days, then strain it through a fine cloth,
and you will find little animals in it. If they are red, it is a male,
but if white, it is a female.

The belly is rounder and lies higher with a boy than with a girl, and
the right breast is harder and plumper than the left, and the right
nipple redder, and the woman's colour is clearer than when she has
conceived a girl.

To conclude, the most certain sign to give credit to, is the motion of
the child, for the male moves in the third month, and the female not
until the fourth.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER XIII

     _Of Untimely Births._


When the fruit of the womb comes forth before the seventh month (that
is, before it comes to maturity), it is said to be abortive; and, in
effect, the children prove abortive, that is, do not live, that are born
in the eighth month. Why children born in the seventh or ninth month
should live, and not those born in the eighth, may seem strange, and yet
it is true. The cause of it is ascribed by some to the planet under
which the child is born; for every month, from conception to birth, is
governed by its own planet, and in the eighth month Saturn predominates,
which is dry and cold; and coldness, being an utter enemy to life,
destroys the natural constitution of the child. Hippocrates gives a
better reason, viz.:--The infant, being every way perfect and complete
in the seventh month, wants more air and nourishment than it had before,
and because it cannot obtain this, it tries for a passage out. But if it
have not sufficient strength to break the membranes and to come out as
ordained by nature, it will continue in the womb until the ninth month,
so that by that time it may be again strengthened. But if it returns to
the attempt in the eighth month and be born, it cannot live, because the
day of its birth is either past or is to come. For in the eighth month
Avicunus says, it is weak and infirm, and therefore on being brought
into the cold air, its vitality must be destroyed.



CURE.

Untimely births may be caused by cold, for as it causes the fruit of the
tree to wither and fall before it is ripe, so it nips the fruit of the
womb before it comes to perfection, or makes it abortive;--sometimes by
humidity, which weakens its power, so that the fruit cannot be retained
until the proper time. It may be caused by dryness or emptiness, which
rob the child of its nourishment, or by an alvine discharge, by bleeding
or some other evacuation, by inflammation of the womb, and other severe
disease. Sometimes it is caused by joy, anger, laughter and especially
by fear, for then the heat forsakes the womb, and goes to the heart, and
so the cold sinks into the womb, whereby the ligaments are relaxed, and
so abortion follows. On this account, Plato recommended that the woman
should avoid all temptations to excessive joy and pleasure, as well as
all occasions for fear and grief. Abortion may also be caused by the
pollution of the air by filthy odours, and especially by the smell of
the smouldering wick of a candle, and also by falls, blows, violent
exercise, jumping, dancing, etc.



SIGNS.

Signs of coming abortion are a falling away of the breast, with a flow
of watery milk, pains in the womb, heaviness in the head, unusual
weariness in the hips and thighs, and a flowing of the courses. Signs
denoting that the fruit is dead in the womb are sunken eyes, pains in
the head, frights, paleness of the face and lips, gnawing at the
stomach, no movements of the infant; coldness and looseness of the
mouth of the womb. The stomach falls down, whilst watery and bloody
discharges come from the womb.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER XIV

     _Directions for Pregnant Women._


The prevention of untimely births consists in removing the
aforementioned causes, which must be effected both before and after
conception.

Before conception, if the body be too hot, dry or moist, employ such
treatment as to counteract the symptoms; if the blood be vitiated purify
it, if plethoric, open the liver vein; if gross, reduce it; if too thin
strengthen and nourish it. All the diseases of the womb must be removed
as I have shown.

After conception, let the atmosphere be kept temperate, do not sleep too
much, avoid late hours, too much bodily exercise, mental excitement,
loud noises and bad smells, and sweet smells must also be avoided by
those who are hysterical. Refrain from all things that may provoke
either urine or menstruation, also salt, sour, and windy food, and keep
to a moderate diet.

If the bowels are confined, relieve the stomach with injections made of
a decoction of mallows and violets, with sugar and salad oil; or make a
broth with borage, buglos, beetroot, and mallows, and add a little manna
to it. If, on the other hand, she be troubled with looseness of the
bowels, do not check it with medical advice, for all the uterine fluxes
have some bad qualities in them, which must be evacuated before the
discharge is stopped.

A cough is another thing to which pregnant women are frequently liable,
and which causes them to run great danger of miscarrying, by the shock
and continual drain upon the vein. To prevent this shave off the hair
from the coronal commissures, and apply the following plaster to the
place.

Take half an ounce of resin, a drachm of laudanum, a drachm each of
citron peel, lignaloes and galbanum, with a sufficient quantity of
liquid and dry styrax. Dissolve the gum in vinegar and make a plaster,
and at night let her inhale the fumes of these lozenges, thrown upon
bright coals. Take also a drachm and a half each of frankincense, styrax
powder and red roses: eight drachms of sandrich, a drachm each of
mastic, benjamin and amber; make into lozenges with turpentine, and
apply a cautery to the nape of the neck. And every night let her take
the following pills:--Half an ounce each of hypocistides, terrae
sigilatae and fine bole; two drachms each of bistort, alcatia, styrax
and calamint, and one drachm of cloves, and make into pills with syrup
of myrtles.

In pregnant women, a corrupt matter is generated which, flowing to the
ventricle, spoils the appetite and causes sickness. As the stomach is
weak, and cannot digest this matter, it sometimes sends it to the bowels
which causes a flux of the stomach, which greatly adds to the weakness
of the womb. To prevent all these dangers the stomach must be
strengthened by the following means:--Take one drachm each of lignaloes
and nutmeg; a scruple each of mace, cloves, mastic, laudanum; an ounce
of oil of spikenard; two grains of musk, half an ounce each of oil of
mastic, quinces and wormwood, and make into an ointment for the stomach,
to be applied before meals. Instead of this, however, you may use
cerocum stomachile Galeni. Take half an ounce each of conserve of
borage, buglos and atthos; two drachms each of confection of hyacinths,
candied lemon peel, specierum, diamarg, pulo. de genunis: two scruples
each of nutmeg and diambra; two drachma each of peony roots and
diacoratum, and make into an electuary with syrup of roses, which she
must take twice a day before meals. Another affection which troubles a
pregnant woman is swelling of the legs, which happens during the first
three months, by the superfluous humours descending from the stomach and
liver. To cure this, take two drachms of oil of roses, and one drachm
each of salt and vinegar; shake them together until the salt is
dissolved, and anoint the legs with it hot, rubbing it well in with the
hand. It may be done without danger during the fourth, fifth and sixth
months of pregnancy; for a child in the womb is compared to an apple on
the tree. For the first three months it is a weak and tender subject,
like the apple, to fall away; but afterwards, when the membranes become
strengthened, the fruit remains firmly fastened to the womb, and not
subject to mischances, and so it remains, until the seventh month, until
when it is near the time, the ligaments are again relaxed (like the
apple that is almost ripe).

They grow looser every day, until the appointed time for delivery; if,
therefore, the body is in real need of purging, the woman may do it
without danger in the fourth, fifth or sixth month, but neither before
nor after that unless in the case of some violent illness, in which it
is possible that both mother and child may perish. Apply plasters and
ointments to the loins in order to strengthen the fruit in the womb.
Take one drachm each of gum Arabic, galangale, bistort, hypocistid and
storax, a drachm and a half each of fine bole, nutmeg, mastic, balaust,
dragon's blood and myrtle berries, and a sufficient quantity of wax and
turpentine and make into a plaster. Apply it to the loins in the winter,
and remove it every twenty-four hours, lest the loins should become
overheated by it. In the interim, anoint the private parts and loins
with _countess' balsam_ but if it be summer time and the loins hot, the
following plaster will be more suitable. Take a pound of red roses, two
drachms each of mastic and red Sanders, one drachm each of bole ammoniac
and red coral, two drachms and a half each of pomegranate seed and
prepared coriander seed, two scruples of barberries, one ounce each of
oil of mastic and of quinces, and plantain-juice.

Anoint the loins also with sandalwood ointment, and once a week wash
them with two parts of rose-water and one of white wine mixed together
and warmed at the fire. This will assuage the heat of the loins, get rid
of the oil of the plaster from the pores of the skin, and cause the
fresh ointment or plaster to penetrate more easily, and to strengthen
the womb. Some think that a load-stone laid upon the navel, keeps a
woman from abortion. The same thing is also stated of the stone called
_aetites_ or eagle-stone, if it is hung round the neck. Samian stone has
the same virtue.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER XV

     _Directions for Women when they are taken in Labour, to ensure
     their safe Delivery, and Directions for Midwives._


Having thus given the necessary directions to pregnant women, how to
manage their health during their pregnancy, I will now add what is
necessary for them to do, in order that they may be safely delivered.

When the time of birth draws near, the woman must be sure to send for a
skilful midwife, and that rather too soon than too late. She must have a
pallet bed ready to place it near the fire, so that the midwife and
those who are to help her, may be able to pass round it, and give
assistance on either side, as may be required. A change of linen must be
in readiness, and a small stool to rest her feet against, as she will
have more power when her legs are bent, than when they are straight.

When everything is thus ready, and when the woman feels the pains coming
on, if the weather be not cold, she should walk about the room, rest on
the bed occasionally, waiting for the breaking of the waters, which is a
fluid contained in one of the outward membranes, and which flows out
thence, when the membrane is broken by the struggles of the child. There
is no special time for this discharge, though it generally takes place
about two hours before the birth. Movements will also cause the womb to
open and dilate, and when lying long in bed will be uncomfortable. If
she be very weak she may take some mild cordial to give her strength, if
her pain will permit her; and if the labour be tedious, she may be
revived with chicken or mutton broth, or she may take a poached egg; but
she must be very careful not to eat to excess.

There are many postures in which women are delivered; some sitting in a
chair, supported by others, or resting on the bed; some again upon their
knees and resting on their arms; but the safest and most commodious way,
is in the bed, and then the midwife ought to observe the following
rules:--Let her lay the woman upon her back, with her head a little
raised by means of a pillow, with similar supports for her loins and
buttocks, which latter should also be raised, for if she lies low, she
cannot be delivered so easily. Then let her keep her knees and thighs as
far apart as she can, her legs bent inward towards each other, and her
buttocks, the soles of her feet and her heels being placed upon a small
rest, placed for the purpose, so that she may be able to strain the
stronger. In case her back should be very weak, a swathing band should
be placed under it, the band being doubled four times and about four
inches broad. This must be held by two persons who must raise her up a
little every time her pains come on, with steady hands and in even time,
but if they be not exact in their movements, they had better leave her
alone. At the same time two women must hold her shoulders so that she
may strain out the foetus more easily; and to facilitate this let one
stroke or press the upper part of her stomach gently and by degrees. The
woman herself must not be nervous or downhearted, but courageous, and
forcing herself by straining and holding her breath.

When delivery is near, the midwife must wait patiently until the child's
head, or some limb, bursts the membranes, for if the midwife through
ignorance, or through haste to go to some other woman, as some have
done, tears the membrane with her nails, she endangers both the woman
and the child; for by lying dry and lacking that slipperiness which
should make it easy, it comes forth with severe pains.

When the head appears, the midwife must hold it gently between her
hands, and draw the child, whenever the woman's pains are upon her, but
at no other times; slipping her forefingers under its armpits by
degrees, and not using a rough hand in drawing it out, lest the tender
infant might become deformed by such means. As soon as the child is
taken out, which is usually with its face downwards,--it should be laid
upon its back, that it may receive external respiration more freely;
then cut the navel string about three inches from the body, tying the
end which adheres to it with a silk string, as closely as you can; then
cover the child's head and stomach well, allowing nothing to touch its
face.

When the child has been thus brought forth, if it be healthy lay it
aside, and let the midwife attend to the patient by drawing out the
afterbirth; and this she may do by wagging and stirring it up and down,
and afterwards drawing it out gently. And if the work be difficult, let
the woman hold salt in her hands, close them tightly and breathe hard
into them, and by that she will know whether the membranes are broken or
not. It may also be known by making her strain or vomit; by putting her
fingers down her throat, or by straining or moving her lower parts, but
let all be done immediately. If this should fail, let her take a draught
of elder water, or the yolk of a new laid egg, and smell a piece of
asafoetida, especially if she is troubled with a windy colic. If she
happen to take cold, it is a great obstruction to the afterbirth; in
such cases the midwife ought to chafe the woman's stomach gently, so as
to break, not only the wind, but also to force the secundine to come
down. But if these should prove ineffectual, the midwife must insert her
hand into the orifice of the womb and draw it out gently.

Having thus discussed common births, or such as are generally easy, I
shall now give directions in cases of extremity.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER XVI

     _What ought to be done in cases of extremity, especially in women
     who, in labour, are attacked by a flux of blood, convulsions and
     fits of wind._


If the woman's labour be hard and difficult, greater care must be taken
than at other times. And, first of all, the situation of the womb and
her position in lying must be across the bed, and she must be held by
strong persons to prevent her from slipping down or moving during the
surgeon's operations. Her thighs must be put as far apart as possible,
and held so, whilst her head must rest upon a bolster, and her loins be
supported in the same manner. After her rump and buttocks have been
raised, be careful to cover her stomach, belly and thighs with warm
clothes, to keep them from the cold.

When the woman is in this position, let the operator put up his or her
hand, if the neck of the womb be dilated, and remove the coagulated
blood that obstructs the passage of the birth; and by degrees make way
gently, let him remove the infant tenderly, having first anointed his
hand with butter or some harmless salve. And if the waters have not come
down, they may then be let out without difficulty. Then, if the infant
should attempt to come out head foremost, or crosswise, he should turn
it gently, to find the feet. Having done this, let him draw out one and
fasten it with ribbon and then put it up again, and by degrees find the
other, bringing them as close together and as even as possible, and
between whiles let the woman breathe, and she should be urged to strain
so as to help nature in the birth, that it may be brought forth. And to
do this more easily, and that the hold may be surer, wrap a linen cloth
round the child's thighs, taking care to bring it into the hand face
downwards.

In case of flux of blood, if the neck of the womb be open, it must be
considered whether the infant or the _secundine_, generally called the
afterbirth, comes first, and as the latter happens to do so
occasionally, it stops the mouth of the womb and hinders the birth, and
endangers both the woman's and the child's life. In this case the
afterbirth must be removed by a quick turn. They have deceived many
people, who, feeling their softness, have supposed that the womb was not
dilated, and by that means the woman and child, or at least the latter,
have been lost. When the afterbirth has been removed, the child must be
sought for and drawn out, as directed above; and if the woman or the
child die in such a case, the midwife or the surgeon are blameless
because they have used their best endeavours.

If it appears upon examination that the afterbirth comes first, let the
woman be delivered as quickly as possible, because a great flow of blood
will follow, for the veins are opened, and on this account two things
have to be considered.

_First_:--The manner in which the afterbirth advances, whether it be
much or little. If the former, and the head of the child appears first,
it may be guided and directed towards the neck of the womb, as in the
case of natural birth, but if there appears any difficulty in the
delivery, the best way is to look for the feet, and draw it out by them;
but if the latter, the afterbirth may be put back with a gentle hand,
and the child taken out first. But if the afterbirth has come so far
forward that it cannot be put back, and the child follows it closely,
then the afterbirth must be removed very carefully, and as quickly as
may be, and laid aside without cutting the entrail that is fastened to
it; for you may be guided to the infant by it, which must be drawn out
by the feet, whether it be alive or dead, as quickly as possible; though
this is not to be done except in cases of great necessity, for in other
cases the afterbirth ought to come last.

In drawing out a dead child, these directions should be carefully
followed by the surgeon, viz.--If the child be found to be dead, its
head appearing first, the delivery will be more difficult; for it is an
evident sign that the woman's strength is beginning to fail her, that,
as the child is dead and has no natural power, it cannot be assisting in
its own delivery in any way. Therefore the most certain and the safest
way for the surgeon is, to put up his left hand, sliding it into the
neck of the womb, and into the lower part of it towards the feet, as
hollow in the palm as he can, and then between the head of the infant
and the neck of the womb. Then, having a forceps in the right hand, slip
it up above the left hand, between the head of the child and the flat of
the hand, fixing it in the bars of the temple near the eye. As these
cannot be got at easily in the occipital bone, be careful still to keep
the hand in its place, and gently move the head with it, and so with the
right hand and the forceps draw the child forward, and urge the woman to
exert all her strength, and continue drawing whenever her pains come on.
When the head is drawn out, he must immediately slip his hand under the
child's armpits, and take it quite out, and give the woman a piece of
toasted white bread, in a quarter of a pint of Hippocras wine.

If the former application fails let the woman take the following potion
hot when she is in bed, and remain quiet until she begins to feel it
operating.

Take seven blue figs, cut them into pieces and add five grains each of
fenugreek, motherwort and rue seed, with six ounces each of water of
pennyroyal and motherwort; reduce it to half the quantity by boiling and
after straining add one drachm of troches of myrrh and three grains of
saffron; sweeten the liquor with loaf sugar, and spice it with
cinnamon.--After having rested on this, let her strain again as much as
possible, and if she be not successful, make a fumigation of half a
drachm each of castor, opopanax, sulphur and asafoetida, pounding them
into a powder and wetting the juice of rue, so that the smoke or fumes
may go only into the matrix and no further.

If this have not the desired effect, then the following plaster should
be applied:--Take an ounce and a half of balganum, two drachms of
colocynth, half an ounce each of the juice of motherwort and of rue, and
seven ounces of virgin bees' wax: pound and melt them together,
spreading them on a cere-cloth so that they may spread from the navel to
the os pubis and extending to the flanks, at the same time making a
pessary of wood, enclosing it in a silk bag, and dipping it in a
decoction of one drachm each of sound birthwort, savin colocinthis,
stavescare and black hellebore, with a small sprig or two of rue.

But if these things have not the desired effect, and the woman's danger
increases, let the surgeon use his instruments to dilate and widen the
womb, for which purpose the woman must be placed on a chair, so that she
may turn her buttocks as far from its back as possible, at the same time
drawing up her legs as close as she can and spreading her thighs open as
wide as possible; or if she is very weak it may be better to lay her on
the bed with her head downwards, her buttocks raised and both legs drawn
up. Then the surgeon may dilate the womb with his speculum matrices and
draw out the child and the afterbirth together, if it be possible, and
when this is done, the womb must be well washed and anointed, and the
woman put back to bed and comforted with spices and cordials. This
course must be adopted in the case of dead children and moles,
afterbirths and false births, which will not come out of themselves, at
the proper time. If the aforementioned instrument will not widen the
womb sufficiently, then other instruments, such as the drake's bill, or
long pincers, ought to be used.

If any inflammation, swelling or congealed blood happens to be
contracted in the womb under the film of these tumours, either before or
after the birth, let the midwife lance it with a penknife or any
suitable instrument, and squeeze out the matter, healing it with a
pessary dipped in oil of red roses.

If the child happens at any time to be swollen through cold or violence,
or has contracted a watery humour, if it is alive, such means must be
used as are least injurious to the child or mother; but if it be dead,
the humours must be let out by incisions, to facilitate the birth.

If, as often happens, the child is presented feet foremost, with the
hands spreading out from the hips, the midwife must in such a case be
provided with the necessary ointments to rub and anoint the child with,
to help it coming forth, lest it should turn into the womb again,
holding both the infant's arms close to the hips at the same time, that
it may come out in this manner; but if it proves too big, the womb must
be well anointed. The woman should also take a sneezing powder, to make
her strain; the attendant may also stroke her stomach gently to make the
birth descend, and to keep it from returning.

It happens occasionally, that the child presenting itself with the feet
first, has its arms extended above its head; but the midwife must not
receive it so, but put it back into the womb, unless the passage be
extraordinarily wide, and then she must anoint both the child and the
womb, and it is not safe to draw it out, which must, therefore, be done
in this manner.--The woman must lie on her back with her head low and
her buttocks raised; and then the midwife must compress the stomach and
the womb with a gentle hand, and by that means put the child back,
taking care to turn the child's face towards the mother's back, raising
up its thighs and buttocks towards the navel, so that the birth may be
more natural.

If the child happens to come out with one foot, with the arm extended
along the side and the other foot turned backwards; then the woman must
be immediately put to bed and laid in the above-described position; when
the midwife must immediately put back the foot which appears so, and the
woman must rock herself from side to side, until she finds that the
child has turned, but she must not alter her position nor turn upon her
face. After this she may expect her pains and must have great assistance
and cordials so as to revive and support her spirits.

At other times it happens that the child lies across in the womb, and
falls upon its side; in this case the woman must not be urged in her
labour; therefore, the midwife when she finds it so, must use great
diligence to reduce it to its right form, or at least to such a form in
the womb as may make the delivery possible and most easy by moving the
buttocks and guiding the head to the passage; and if she be successful
in this, let the woman rock herself to and fro, and wait with patience
till it alters its way of lying.

Sometimes the child hastens simply by expanding its legs and arms; in
which, as in the former case, the woman must rock herself, but not with
violence, until she finds those parts fall to their proper station; or
it may be done by a gentle compression of the womb; but if neither of
them avail, the midwife must close the legs of the infant with her hand,
and if she can get there, do the like by the arms, and so draw it forth;
but if it can be reduced of itself to the posture of a proper birth it
is better.

If the infant comes forward, both knees forward, and the hands hanging
down upon the thighs, then the midwife must put both knees upward, till
the feet appear; taking hold of which with her left hand let her keep
her right hand on the side of the child, and in that posture endeavour
to bring it forth. But if she cannot do this, then also the woman must
rock herself until the child is in a more convenient posture for
delivery.

Sometimes it happens that the child presses forward with one arm
extended on its thighs, and the other raised over its head, and the feet
stretched out at length in the womb. In such case, the midwife must not
attempt to receive the child in that posture, but must lay the woman on
the bed in the manner aforesaid, making a soft and gentle compression on
her belly, oblige the child to retire; which if it does not, then must
the midwife thrust it back by the shoulder, and bring the arm that was
stretched above the head to its right station; for there is most danger
in these extremities; and, therefore, the midwife must anoint her hands
and the womb of the woman with sweet butter, or a proper pomatum, and
thrust her hand as near as she can to the arm of the infant, and bring
it to the side. But if this cannot be done, let the woman be laid on the
bed to rest a while; in which time, perhaps, the child may be reduced to
a better posture; which the midwife finding, she must draw tenderly the
arms close to the hips and so receive it.

If an infant come with its buttocks foremost, and almost double, then
the midwife must anoint her hand and thrust it up, and gently heaving up
the buttocks and back, strive to turn the head to the passage, but not
too hastily, lest the infant's retiring should shape it worse: and
therefore, if it cannot be turned with the hand, the woman must rock
herself on the bed, taking such comfortable things as may support her
spirits, till she perceives the child to turn.

If the child's neck be bowed, and it comes forward with its shoulders,
as it sometimes doth, with the hands and feet stretched upwards, the
midwife must gently move the shoulders, that she may direct the head to
the passage; and the better to effect it, the woman must rock herself as
aforesaid.

These and other like methods are to be observed in case a woman hath
twins, or three children at a birth, which sometimes happens: for as
the single birth hath but one natural and many unnatural forms, even so
it may be in a double and treble birth.

Wherefore, in all such cases the midwife must take care to receive the
first which is nearest the passage; but not letting the other go, lest
by retiring it should change the form; and when one is born, she must be
speedy in bringing forth the other. And this birth, if it be in the
natural way, is more easy, because the children are commonly less than
those of single birth, and so require a less passage. But if this birth
come unnaturally, it is far more dangerous than the other.

In the birth of twins, let the midwife be very careful that the
secundine be naturally brought forth, lest the womb, being delivered of
its burden, fall, and so the secundine continue longer there than is
consistent with the woman's safety.

But if one of the twins happens to come with the head, and the other
with the feet foremost, then let the midwife deliver the natural birth
first; and if she cannot turn the other, draw it out in the posture in
which it presses forward; but if that with its feet downward be
foremost, she may deliver that first, turning the other aside. But in
this case the midwife must carefully see that it be not a monstrous
birth, instead of twins, a body with two heads, or two bodies joined
together, which she may soon know if both the heads come foremost, by
putting up her hand between them as high as she can; and then, if she
finds they are twins she may gently put one of them aside to make way
for the other, taking the first which is most advanced, leaving the
other so that it do not change its position. And for the safety of the
other child, as soon as it comes forth out of the womb, the midwife must
tie the navel-string, as has before been directed, and also bind, with a
large, long fillet, that part of the navel which is fastened to the
secundine, the more readily to find it.

The second infant being born, let the midwife carefully examine whether
there be not two secundines, for sometimes it falls out, that by the
shortness of the ligaments it retires back to the prejudice of the
woman. Wherefore, lest the womb should close, it is most expedient to
hasten them forth with all convenient speed.

If two infants are joined together by the body, as sometimes it
monstrously falls out, then, though the head should come foremost, yet
it is proper, if possible, to turn them and draw them forth by the feet,
observing, when they come to the hips, to draw them out as soon as may
be. And here great care ought to be used in anointing and widening the
passage. But these sort of births rarely happening, I need to say the
less of them, and, therefore, shall show how women should be ordered
after delivery.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER XVII

     _How child-bearing Women ought to be ordered after Delivery._


If a woman has had very hard labour, it is necessary that she should be
wrapped up in a sheep's skin, taken off before it is cold, applying the
fleshy side to her veins and belly, or, for want of this, the skin of a
hare or coney, flayed off as soon as killed, may be applied to the same
parts, and in so doing, a dilation being made in the birth, and the
melancholy blood being expelled in these parts, continue these for an
hour or two.

Let the woman afterwards be swathed with fine linen cloth, about a
quarter of a yard in breadth, chafing the belly before it is swathed,
with oil of St. John's wort; after that raise up the matrix with a linen
cloth, many times folded: then with a linen pillar or quilt, cover the
flanks, and place the swathe somewhat above the haunches, winding it
pretty stiff, applying at the same time a linen cloth to her nipples; do
not immediately use the remedies to keep back the milk, by reason the
body, at such a time, is out of frame; for there is neither vein nor
artery which does not strongly beat; and remedies to drive back the
milk, being of a dissolving nature, it is improper to apply them to the
breasts during such disorder, lest by doing so, evil humours be
contracted in the breast. Wherefore, twelve hours at least ought to be
allowed for the circulation and settlement of the blood, and what was
cast on the lungs by the vehement agitation during labour, to retire to
its proper receptacles.

Some time after delivery, you may take a restrictive of the yolks of two
eggs, and a quarter of a pint of white wine, oil of St. John's wort, oil
of roses, plantain and roses water, of each an ounce, mix them together,
fold a linen cloth and apply it to the breast, and the pains of those
parts will be greatly eased.

She must by no means sleep directly after delivery; but about four hours
after, she may take broth, caudle or such liquid victuals as are
nourishing; and if she be disposed to sleep it may be very safely
permitted. And this is as much, in the case of a natural birth, as ought
immediately to be done.

But in case of an extremity or an unnatural birth, the following rules
ought to be observed:--

In the first place, let the-woman keep a temperate diet, by no means
overcharging herself after such an extraordinary evacuation, not being
ruled by giving credit to unskilful nurses, who admonish them to feed
heartily, the better to repair the loss of blood. For that blood is not
for the most part pure, but such as has been retained in the vessels or
membrane better voided, for the health of the woman, than kept, unless
there happen an extraordinary flux of the blood. For if her nourishment
be too much, which curding, very often turns to imposthumes.

Therefore, it is requisite, for the first five days especially, that she
take moderately panado broth, poached eggs, jelly of chickens or calves'
feet or fresh barley broth; every day increasing the quantity a little.

And if she intend to be a nurse to the child, she may take something
more than ordinary, to increase the milk by degrees, which must be of no
continuance, but drawn off by the child or otherwise. In this case
likewise, observe to let her have coriander or fennel seeds boiled in
barley broth; but by all means, for the time specified, let her abstain
from meat. If no fever trouble her, she may drink now and then a small
quantity of pure white wine or of claret, as also syrup of maidenhead or
any other syrup that is of an astringent quality, taken in a little
water well boiled.

After the fear of fever or contraction of humour in the breast is over,
she may be nourished more plentifully with the broth of capons, pullets,
pigeons, mutton, veal, etc., which must not be until after eight days
from the time of delivery; at which time the womb, unless some accident
binds, has purged itself. It will then likewise be expedient to give
cold meats, but let it be sparingly, so that she may the better gather
strength. And let her, during the time, rest quietly and free from
disturbance, not sleeping in the day time, if she can avoid it.

Take of both mallows and pellitory of the wall a handful; camomile and
melilot flowers, of each a handful; aniseed and fennel of each two
ounces; boil them in a decoction of sheep's head and take of this three
quarts, dissolving in it common honey, coarse sugar and fresh butter and
administer it clysterwise; but if it does not penetrate well take an
ounce of catholicon.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER XVIII

     _Acute Pains after Delivery._


These pains frequently afflict the woman no less than the pain of her
labour, and are, by the more ignorant, many times taken the one for the
other; and sometimes they happen both at the same instant; which is
occasioned by a raw, crude and watery matter in the stomach, contracted
through ill digestion; and while such pains continue, the woman's
travail is retarded.

Therefore, to expel fits of the cholic, take two ounces of oil of sweet
almonds, and an ounce of cinnamon water, with three or four drops of
syrup of ginger; then let the woman drink it off.

If this does not abate the pain, make a clyster of camomile,
balm-leaves, oil of olives and new milk, boiling the former in the
latter. Administer it as is usual in such cases. And then, fomentation
proper for dispelling the wind will not be amiss.

If the pain produces a griping in the guts after delivery, then take of
the root of great comfrey, one drachm, nutmeg and peach kernels, of each
two scruples, yellow amber, eight drachms, ambergris, one scruple;
bruise them together, and give them to the woman as she is laid down, in
two or three spoonfuls of white wine; but if she be feverish, then let
it be in as much warm broth.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE

FAMILY PHYSICIAN

       *       *       *       *       *

BEING

CHOICE AND APPROVED

REMEDIES

FOR SEVERAL DISEASES

INCIDENTAL TO HUMAN BODIES

       *       *       *       *       *



_For the Apoplexy._

Take man's skull prepared, and powder of male peony, of each an ounce
and a half, contrayerva, bastard dittany, angelica, zedvary, of each two
drachms, mix and make a powder, add thereto two ounces of candied
orange and lemon peel, beat all together to a powder, whereof you may
take half a drachm or a drachm.



_A Powder for the Epilepsy or Falling Sickness._

Take of opopanax, crude antimony, castor, dragon's blood, peony seeds,
of each an equal quantity; make a subtle powder; the dose, half a drachm
of black cherry water. Before you take it, the stomach must be prepared
with some proper vomit, as that of Mynficht's emetic tartar, from four
grains to six; if for children, salts of vitrol, from a scruple to half
a drachm.



_For a Headache of Long Standing._

Take the juice or powder in distilled water of hog lice and continue it.



_For Spitting of Blood._

Take conserve of comfrey and of hips, of each an ounce and a half;
conserve of red roses, three ounces; dragon's blood, a drachm; spices of
hyacinths, two scruples; red coral, a drachm; mix and with syrup of
poppies make a soft electuary. Take the quantity of a walnut, night and
morning.



_For a Looseness._

Take Venice treacle and diascordium, of each half a drachm, in warm ale
or water gruel, or what you like best, at night, going to bed.



_For the Bloody Flux._

First take a drachm of powder of rhubarb in a sufficient quantity of
conserve of red roses, in the morning early; then at night, take of
tornified or roasted rhubarb, half a drachm; diascordium, a drachm and a
half; liquid laudanum cyclomated, a scruple: mix and make into a bolus.



_For an Inflammation of the Lungs._

Take of cherious water, ten ounces; water of red poppies, three ounces;
syrup of poppies, an ounce; pearl prepared, a drachm; make julep, and
take six spoonfuls every fourth hour.



_An Ointment for the Pleurisy._

Take oil of violets or sweet almonds, an ounce of each, with wax and a
little saffron, make an ointment, warm it and bathe it upon the parts
affected.



_An Ointment for the Itch._

Take sulphur vive in powder, half an ounce, oil of tartar per deliquim,
a sufficient quantity, ointment of roses, four ounces; make a liniment,
to which add a scruple of rhodium to aromatize, and rub the parts
affected with it.



_For Running Scab._

Take two pounds of tar, incorporate it into a thick mass with
well-sifted ashes; boil the mass in fountain-water, adding leaves of
ground-ivy, white horehound, fumitory roots, sharp-pointed dock and of
flocan pan, of each four handfuls; make a bath to be used with care of
taking cold.



_For Worms in Children._

Take wormseed, half a drachm, flour of sulphur, a drachm; mix and make a
powder. Give as much as will lie on a silver threepence, night and
morning, in grocer's treacle or honey, or to grown up people, you may
add a sufficient quantity of aloe rosatum and so make them up into
pills; three or four may be taken every morning.



_For Fevers in Children._

Take crab-eyes, a drachm, cream of tartar, half a drachm; white
sugar-candy finely powdered, weight of both; mix all well together and
give as much as will lie on a silver threepence, in a spoonful of
barley-water or sack whey.



_A Quieting Night-Draught, when the Cough is Violent._

Take water of green wheat, six ounces, syrup diascordium, three ounces,
take two or three spoonfuls going to bed every night or every other
night.



_An Electuary for the Dropsy._

Take best rhubarb, one drachm, gum lac, prepared, two drachms,
zyloaloes, cinnamon, long birthwort, half an ounce each, best English
saffron, half a scruple; with syrup of chicory and rhubarb make an
electuary. Take the quantity of a nutmeg or small walnut every morning
fasting.



_For a Tympany Dropsy._

Take roots of chervil and candied eringo roots, half an ounce of each,
roots of butcher-broom, two ounces, grass-roots, three ounces, shavings
of ivory and hartshorn, two drachms and a half each; boil them in two or
three pounds of spring water. Whilst the strained liquor is hot, pour it
upon the leaves of watercresses and goose-grass bruised, of each a
handful, adding a pint of Rhenish wine. Make a close infusion for two
hours, then strain out the liquor again, and add to it three ounces of
magirtral water and earth worms and an ounce and a half of the syrup of
the five opening roots. Make an apozen, whereof take four ounces twice a
day.



_For an Inward Bleeding._

Take leaves of plantain and stinging nettles, of each three handfuls,
bruise them well and pour on them six ounces of plantain water,
afterwards make a strong expression and drink the whole off. _Probatum
est._

       *       *       *       *       *




GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

     _Worthy of Notice._


WHEN YOU FIND

A red man to be faithful, a tall man to be wise, a fat man to be swift
of foot, a lean man to be a fool, a handsome man not to be proud, a poor
man not to be envious, a knave to be no liar, an upright man not too
bold and hearty to his own loss, one that drawls when he speaks not to
be crafty and circumventing, one that winks on another with his eyes not
to be false and deceitful, a sailor and hangman to be pitiful, a poor
man to build churches, a quack doctor to have a good conscience, a
bailiff not to be a merciless villain, an hostess not to over-reckon
you, and an usurer to be charitable----

THEN SAY,

     _Ye have found a prodigy._

Men acting contrary to the common course of nature.

       *       *       *       *       *




PART II

       *       *       *       *       *

THE

EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE

       *       *       *       *       *




INTRODUCTION.


I have given this Part the title of The Experienced Midwife, because it
is chiefly designed for those who profess Midwifery, and contains
whatever is necessary for them to know in the practice thereof; and
also, because it is the result of many years' experience, and that in
the most difficult cases, and is, therefore, the more to be depended
upon.

A midwife is the most necessary and honourable office, being indeed a
helper of nature; which therefore makes it necessary for her to be well
acquainted with all the operations of nature in the work of generation,
and instruments with which she works. For she that knows not the
operations of nature, nor with what tool she works, must needs be at a
loss how to assist therein. And seeing the instruments of operation,
both in men and women, are those things by which mankind is produced, it
is very necessary that all midwives should be well acquainted with them,
that they may better understand their business, and assist nature, as
there shall be occasion.

The first thing then necessary as introductory to this treatise, is an
anatomical description of the several parts of generation both in men
and women; but as in the former part of this work I have treated at
large upon these subjects, being desirous to avoid tautology, I shall
not here repeat anything of what was then said, but refer the reader
thereto, as a necessary introduction to what follows. And though I shall
be necessitated to speak plainly so that I may be understood, yet I
shall do it with that modesty that none shall have need to blush unless
it be from something in themselves, rather than from what they shall
find here; having the motto of the royal garter for my defence, which
is:--"Honi soit qui mal y pense,"--"Evil be to him that evil thinks."

       *       *       *       *       *




A

GUIDE TO CHILDBEARING

WOMEN

       *       *       *       *       *




BOOK I

CHAPTER I


SECTION I.--_Of the Womb._

In this chapter I am to treat of the womb, which the Latins call
_matrix_. Its parts are two; the mouth of the womb and the bottom of it.
The mouth is an orifice at the entrance into it, which may be dilated
and shut together like a purse; for though in the act of copulation it
is big enough to receive the glans of the yard, yet after conception, it
is so close and shut, that it will not admit the point of a bodkin to
enter; and yet again, at the time of a woman's delivery, it is opened to
such an extraordinary degree, that the child passeth through it into the
world; at which time this orifice wholly disappears, and the womb seems
to have but one great cavity from the bottom to the entrance of the
neck. When a woman is not with child, it is a little oblong, and of
substance very thick and close; but when she is with child it is
shortened, and its thickness diminished proportionably to its
distension; and therefore it is a mistake of anatomists who affirm, that
its substance waxeth thicker a little before a woman's labour; for any
one's reason will inform him, that the more distended it is, the thinner
it must be; and the nearer a woman is to the time of her delivery the
shorter her womb must be extended. As to the action by which this inward
orifice of the womb is opened and shut, it is purely natural; for were
it otherwise, there could not be so many bastards begotten as there are,
nor would any married women have so many children. Were it in their own
power they would hinder conception, though they would be willing enough
to use copulation; for nature has attended that action with so pleasing
and delightful sensations, that they are willing to indulge themselves
in the use thereof notwithstanding the pains they afterwards endure, and
the hazard of their lives that often follows it. And this comes to pass,
not so much from an inordinate lust in woman, as that the great Director
of Nature, for the increase and multiplication of mankind, and even all
other species in the elementary world, hath placed such a magnetic
virtue in the womb, that it draws the seed to it, as the loadstone draws
iron.

The Author of Nature has placed the womb in the belly, that the heat
might always be maintained by the warmth of the parts surrounding it; it
is, therefore, seated in the middle of the hypogastrium (or lower parts
of the belly between the bladder and the belly, or right gut) by which
also it is defended from any hurt through the hardness of the bones, and
it is placed in the lower part of the belly for the convenience of
copulation, and of a birth being thrust out at full time.

It is of a figure almost round, inclining somewhat to an oblong, in part
resembling a pear; for being broad at the bottom, it gradually
terminates in the point of the orifice which is narrow.

The length, breadth and thickness of the womb differ according to the
age and disposition of the body. For in virgins not ripe it is very
small in all its dimensions, but in women whose terms flow in great
quantities, and such as frequently use copulation, it is much larger,
and if they have had children, it is larger in them than in such as have
had none; but in women of a good stature and well shaped, it is (as I
have said before), from the entry of the privy parts to the bottom of
the womb usually about eight inches; but the length of the body of the
womb alone, does not exceed three; the breadth thereof is near about the
same, and of the thickness of the little finger, when the womb is not
pregnant, but when the woman is with child, it becomes of a prodigious
greatness, and the nearer she is to delivery, the more the womb is
extended.

It is not without reason then, that nature (or the God of Nature) has
made the womb of a membranous substance; for thereby it does the easier
open to conceive, is gradually dilated by the growth of the foetus or
young one, and is afterwards contracted or closed again, to thrust forth
both it and the after-burden, and then to retire to its primitive seat.
Hence also it is enabled to expel any noxious humours, which may
sometimes happen to be contained within it.

Before I have done with the womb, which is the field of generation, and
ought, therefore, to be the more particularly taken care of (for as the
seeds of plants can produce no plants, nor sprig unless grown in ground
proper to excite and awaken their vegetative virtue so likewise the seed
of man, though potentially containing all the parts of the child, would
never produce so admissible an effect, if it were not cast into that
fruitful field of nature, the womb) I shall proceed to a more particular
description of its parts, and the uses for which nature has designed
them.

The womb, then, is composed of various similar parts, that is of
membranes, veins, arteries and nerves. Its membranes are two and they
compose the principal parts of the body, the outermost of which ariseth
from the peritoneum or caul, and is very thin, without it is smooth, but
within equal, that it may the better cleave to the womb, as it is
fleshier and thicker than anything else we meet with within the body,
when the woman is not pregnant, and is interwoven with all sorts of
fibres or small strings that it may the better suffer the extension of
the child, and the water caused during pregnancy, and also that it may
the easier close again after delivery.

The veins and arteries proceed both from the hypogastric and the
spermatic vessels, of which I shall speak by and by; all these are
inserted and terminated in the proper membranes of the womb. The
arteries supply it with food and nourishment, which being brought
together in too great a quantity, sweats through the substance of it,
and distils as it were a dew at the bottom of the cavity; from thence
proceed the terms in ripe virgins, and the blood which nourisheth the
embryo in breeding women. The branches which issue from the spermatic
vessels, are inserted on each side of the bottom of the womb, and are
much less than those which proceed from the hypogastrics, those being
greater and bedewing the whole substance of it. There are some other
small vessels, which arising the one from the other are conducted to the
internal orifice, and by these, those that are pregnant purge away the
superfluity of the terms when they happen to have more than is used in
the nourishment of the infant: by which means nature has taken so much
care of the womb, that during pregnancy it shall not be obliged to open
itself for passing away those excrementitious humours, which, should it
be forced to do, might often endanger abortion.

As touching the nerves, they proceed from the brain, which furnishes all
the inner parts of the lower belly in them, which is the true reason it
hath so great a sympathy with the stomach, which is likewise very
considerably furnished from the same part; so that the womb cannot be
afflicted with any pain, but that the stomach is immediately sensible
thereof, which is the cause of those loathings or frequent vomitings
which happen to it.

But beside all these parts which compose the womb, it has yet four
ligaments, whose office it is, to keep it firm in its place, and prevent
its constant agitation, by the continual motion of the intestines which
surround it, two of which are above and two below. Those above are
called the broad ligaments, because of their broad and membranous
figure, and are nothing else but the production of the peritoneum which
growing out of the sides of the loins towards the veins come to be
inserted in the sides of the bottom of the womb, to hinder the body from
bearing too much on the neck, and so from suffering a precipitation as
will sometimes happen when the ligaments are too much relaxed; and do
also contain the testicles, and as well, safely conduct the different
vessels, as the ejaculatories, to the womb. The lowermost are called
round ligaments, taking their origin from the side of the womb near the
horn, from whence they pass the groin, together with the production of
the peritoneum, which accompanies them through the rings of the oblique
and transverse muscles of the belly, by which they divide themselves
into many little branches resembling the foot of a goose, of which some
are inserted into the os pubis, the rest are lost and confounded with
the membranes which women and children feel in their thighs. These two
ligaments are long, round and nervous, and pretty big in their
beginning near the matrix, hollow in their rise, and all along the os
pubis, where they are a little smaller and become flat, the better to be
inserted in the manner aforesaid. It is by their means the womb is
hindered from rising too high. Now, although the womb is held in its
natural situation by means of these four ligaments, it has liberty
enough to extend itself when pregnant, because they are very loose, and
so easily yield to its distension. But besides these ligaments, which
keep the womb, as it were, in a poise, yet it is fastened for greater
security by its neck, both to the bladder and rectum, between which it
is situated. Whence it comes to pass, that if at any time the womb be
inflamed, it communicates the inflammation to the neighbouring part.

Its use or proper action in the work of generation, is to receive and
retain the seed, and deduce from it power and action by its heat, for
the generation of the infant; and it is, therefore, absolutely necessary
for the conservation of the species. It also seems by accident to
receive and expel the impurities of the whole body, as when women have
abundance of whites, and to purge away, from time to time, the
superfluity of the blood, as when a woman is not with child.



SECT. II.--_Of the difference between the ancient and modern Physicians,
    touching the woman's contributing seed for the Formation of the
    Child._

Our modern anatomists and physicians are of different sentiments from
the ancients touching the woman's contributing seed for the formation of
the child, as well as the man; the ancients strongly affirming it, but
our modern authors being generally of another judgment. I will not make
myself a party to this controversy, but set down impartially, yet
briefly, the arguments on each side, and leave the judicious reader to
judge for himself.

Though it is apparent, say the ancients, that the seed of man is the
principal efficient and beginning of action, motion and generation, yet
the woman affords seed, and contributes to the procreation of the child,
it is evident from hence, that the woman had seminal vessels, which had
been given her in vain if she wanted seminal excretions; but since
nature forms nothing in vain, it must be granted that they were formed
for the use of the seed and procreation, and fixed in their proper
places, to operate and contribute virtue and efficiency to the seed; and
this, say they, is further proved from hence, that if women at years of
maturity use not copulation to eject their seed, they often fall into
strange diseases, as appears by young women and virgins, and also it
appears that, women are never better pleased than when they are often
satisfied this way, which argues, that the pleasure and delight, say
they, is double in women to what it is in men, for as the delight of men
in copulation consists chiefly in the emission of the seed, so women are
delighted, both in the emission of their own and the reception of the
man's.

But against this, all our modern authors affirm that the ancients are
very erroneous, inasmuch as the testicles in women do not afford seed,
but are two eggs, like those of a fowl or other creatures; neither have
they any such offices as in men, but are indeed an ovarium, or
receptacle for eggs, wherein these eggs are nourished, by the sanguinary
vessels dispersed through them; and from hence one or more, as they are
fecundated by the man's seed, are conveyed into the womb by the
oviducts. And the truth of this, say they, is so plain, that if you boil
them, the liquor shall have the same taste, colour and consistency with
the taste of bird's eggs. And if it be objected that they have no
shells, the answer is easy; for the eggs of fowls while they are in the
ovary, nay, after they have fallen into the uterus, have no shell: and
though they have one when they are laid, yet it is no more than a fence
which nature has provided for them against outward injuries, they being
hatched without the body, but those of women being hatched within the
body have no need of any other fence than the womb to secure them.

They also further say, that there are in the generation of the foetus,
or young ones, two principles, _active_ and _passive_; the _active_ is
the man's seed elaborated in the testicles out of the arterial blood and
animal spirits; the _passive_ principle is the ovum or egg, impregnated
by the man's seed; for to say that women have true seed, say they, is
erroneous. But the manner of conception is this; the most spirituous
part of the man's seed, in the act of copulation, reaching up to the
ovarium or testicles of the woman (which contains divers eggs, sometimes
fewer) impregnates one of them; which, being conveyed by the oviducts to
the bottom of the womb, presently begins to swell bigger and bigger, and
drinks in the moisture that is so plentifully sent hither, after the
same manner that the seed in the ground suck the fertile moisture
thereof, to make them sprout.

But, notwithstanding what is here urged by modern anatomists, there are
some late writers of the opinion of the ancients, viz., that women both
have, and emit seed in the act of copulation; and even women themselves
take it ill to be thought merely passive in the act wherein they make
such vigorous exertions; and positively affirm, that they are sensible
of the emission of their seed in that action, and that in it a great
part of the delight which they take in that act, consists. I shall not,
therefore, go about to take away any of their happiness from them, but
leave them in possession of their imaginary felicity.

Having thus laid the foundation of this work, I will now proceed to
speak of conception, and of those things which are necessary to be
observed by women from the time of their conception, to the time of
their delivery.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER II

     _Of Conception; what it is; how women are to order themselves after
     Conception._


SECTION I.--_What Conception is, and the qualifications requisite
    thereto._

Conception is nothing but an action of the womb, by which the prolific
seed is received and retained, that an infant may be engendered and
formed out of it. There are two sorts of conception: the one according
to nature, which is followed by the generation of the infant in the
womb; the other false and wholly against nature, in which the seed
changes into water, and produces only false conceptions, moles, or other
strange matter. Now, there are three things principally necessary in
order to a true conception, so that generation may follow, viz., without
diversity of sex there can be no conception; for, though some will have
a woman to be an animal that can engender of herself, it is a great
mistake; there can be no conception without a man discharge his seed
into the womb. What they allege of pullets laying eggs without a cock's
treading them is nothing to the purpose, for those eggs should they be
set under a hen, will never become chickens because they never received
any prolific virtue from the male, which is absolutely necessary to this
purpose, and is sufficient to convince us, that diversity of the sex is
necessary even to those animals, as well as to the generation of man.
But diversity of sex, though it be necessary to conception, yet it will
not do alone; there must also be a congression of the different sexes;
for diversity of sex would profit little if copulation did not follow. I
confess I have heard of subtle women, who, to cover their sin and
shame, have endeavoured to persuade some peasants that they were never
touched by man to get them with child; and that one in particular
pretended to conceive by going into a bath where a man had washed
himself a little before and spent his seed in it, which was drawn and
sucked into her womb, as she pretended. But such stories as these are
only for such who know no better. Now that these different sexes should
be obliged to come to the touch, which we call copulation or coition,
besides the natural desire of begetting their like, which stirs up men
and women to it, the parts appointed for generation are endowed by
nature with a delightful and mutual itch, which begets in them a desire
to the action; without which, it would not be very easy for a man, born
for the contemplation of divine mysteries, to join himself, by the way
of coition, to a woman, in regard to the uncleanness of the part and the
action. And, on the other side, if the woman did but think of those
pains and inconveniences to which they are subject by their great
bellies, and those hazards of life itself, besides the unavoidable pains
that attend their delivery, it is reasonable to believe they would be
affrighted from it. But neither sex makes these reflections till after
the action is over, considering nothing beforehand but the pleasure of
the enjoyment, so that it is from this voluptuous itch that nature
obliges both sexes to this congression. Upon which the third thing
followeth of course, viz., the emission of seed into the womb in the act
of copulation. For the woman having received this prolific seed into her
womb, and retained it there, the womb thereupon becomes depressed, and
embraces the seed so closely, that being closed the point of a needle
cannot enter into it without violence. And now the woman may be said to
have conceived, having reduced by her heat from power into action, the
several faculties which are contained in the seed, making use of the
spirits with which the seed abounds, and which are the instruments which
begin to trace out the first lineaments of the parts, and which
afterwards, by making use of the menstruous blood flowing to it, give
it, in time, growth and final perfection. And thus much shall suffice to
explain what conception is. I shall next proceed to show



SECT. II.--_How a Woman ought to order herself after Conception._

My design in this treatise being brevity, I shall bring forward a little
of what the learned have said of the causes of twins, and whether there
be any such things as superfoetations, or a second conception in a woman
(which is yet common enough), and as to twins, I shall have occasion to
speak of them when I come to show you how the midwife ought to proceed
in the delivery of the women that are pregnant with them. But having
already spoken of conception, I think it now necessary to show how such
as have conceived ought to order themselves during their pregnancy, that
they may avoid those inconveniences, which often endanger the life of
the child and many times their own.

A woman, after conception, during the time of her being with child,
ought to be looked upon as indisposed or sick, though in good health;
for child bearing is a kind of nine months' sickness, being all that
time in expectation of many inconveniences which such a condition
usually causes to those that are not well governed during that time; and
therefore, ought to resemble a good pilot, who, when sailing on a rough
sea and full of rocks, avoids and shuns the danger, if he steers with
prudence, but if not, it is a thousand to one but he suffers shipwreck.
In like manner, a woman with child is often in danger of miscarrying and
losing her life, if she is not very careful to prevent those accidents
to which she is subject all the time of her pregnancy. All which time
her care must be double, first of herself, and secondly of the child
she goes with for otherwise, a single error may produce a double
mischief; for if she receives a prejudice, the child also suffers with
her. Let a woman, therefore, after conception, observe a good diet,
suitable to her temperament, custom, condition and quality; and if she
can, let the air where she ordinarily dwells be clear and well tempered,
and free from extremes, either of heat or cold; for being too hot, it
dissipateth the spirits too much and causes many weaknesses; and by
being too cold and foggy, it may bring down rheums and distillations on
the lungs, and so cause her to cough, which, by its impetuous motion,
forcing downwards, may make her miscarry. She ought alway to avoid all
nauseous and ill smells; for sometimes the stench of a candle, not well
put out, may cause her to come before time; and I have known the smell
of charcoal to have the same effect. Let her also avoid smelling of rue,
mint, pennyroyal, castor, brimstone, etc.

But, with respect to their diet, women with child have generally so
great loathings and so many different longings, that it is very
difficult to prescribe an exact diet for them. Only this I think
advisable, that they may use those meats and drinks which are to them
most desirable, though, perhaps, not in themselves so wholesome as some
others, and, it may be not so pleasant; but this liberty must be made
use of with this caution, that what they desire be not in itself
unwholesome; and also that in everything they take care of excess. But,
if a child-bearing woman finds herself not troubled with such longings
as we have spoken of, let her take simple food, and in such quantity as
may be sufficient for herself and the child, which her appetite may in a
great measure regulate; for it is alike hurtful to her to fast too long
as to eat too much; and therefore, rather let her eat a little and
often; especially let her avoid eating too much at night, because the
stomach being too much filled, compresseth the diaphragm, and thereby
causeth difficulty of breathing. Let her meat be easy of digestion, such
as the tenderest parts of beef, mutton, veal, fowls, pullets, capons,
pigeons and partridges, either boiled or roasted, as she likes best, new
laid eggs are also very good for her; and let her put into her broth
those herbs that purify it, as sorrel, lettuce, succory and borage; for
they will purge and purify the blood. Let her avoid whatever is hot
seasoned, especially pies and baked meats, which being of hot digestion,
overcharge the stomach. If she desire fish let it be fresh, and such as
is taken out of rivers and running streams. Let her eat quinces and
marmalade, to strengthen her child: for which purpose sweet almonds,
honey, sweet apples, and full ripe grapes, are also good. Let her
abstain from all salt, sour, bitter and salt things, and all things that
tend to provoke the terms--such as garlic, onions, mustard, fennel,
pepper and all spices except cinnamon, which in the last three months is
good for her. If at first her diet be sparing, as she increases in
bigness, let her diet be increased, for she ought to consider that she
has a child as well as herself to nourish. Let her be moderate in her
drinking; and if she drinks wine, let it be rather claret than white
(for it will breed good blood, help the digestion, and comfort the
stomach, which is weakly during pregnancy); but white wine being
diuretic, or that which provokes urine, ought to be avoided. Let her be
careful not to take too much exercise, and let her avoid dancing, riding
in a coach, or whatever else puts the body into violent motion,
especially in the first month. But to be more particular, I shall here
set down rules proper for every month for the child-bearing woman to
order herself, from the time she first conceived, to the time of her
delivery.



_Rules for the First Two Months._

As soon as a woman knows, or has reason to believe, that she has
conceived, she ought to abstain from all violent motions and exercise;
whether she walks afoot, or rides on horseback or in a coach, it ought
to be very gently. Let her also abstain from Venery (for which, after
conception, she has usually no great inclination), lest there be a mole
or superfoetation, which is the adding of one embryo to another. Let her
beware not to lift her arms too high, nor carry great burdens, nor
repose herself on hard and uneasy seats. Let her use moderately good,
juicy meat and easy of digestion, and let her wines be neither too
strong nor too sharp, but a little mingled with water; or if she be very
abstemious, she may use water wherein cinnamon has been boiled. Let her
avoid fastings, thirst, watchings, mourning, sadness, anger, and all
other perturbations of the mind. Let no one present any strange or
unwholesome thing to her, nor so much as name it, lest she should desire
it and not be able to get it, and so either cause her to miscarry, or
the child to have some deformity on that account. Let her belly be kept
loose with prunes, raisins or manna in her broth, and let her use the
following electuary, to strengthen the womb and the child--

"Take conserve of borage, buglos and roses, each two ounces; an ounce of
balm; an ounce each of citron peel and shreds, candied mirobalans, an
ounce each; extract of wood aloes a scruple; prepared pearl, half a
drachm; red coral and ivory, of each a drachm; precious stones each a
scruple; candied nutmegs, two drachms, and with syrup of apples and
quinces make an electuary."



_Let her observe the following rules._

"Take pearls prepared, a drachm; red coral and ivory prepared, each half
a drachm, precious stones, each a scruple; yellow citron peel, mace,
cinnamon, cloves, each half a drachm; saffron, a scruple; wood aloes,
half a scruple; ambergris, six drachms; and with six ounces of sugar
dissolved in rosewater make rolls." Let her also apply strengtheners of
nutmeg, mace and mastich made up in bags, to the navel, or a toast
dipped in malmsey, or sprinkled with powdered mint. If she happens to
desire clay, chalk, or coals (as many women with child do), give her
beans boiled with sugar, and if she happens to long for anything that
she cannot obtain, let her presently drink a large draught of pure cold
water.



_Rules for the Third Month._

In this month and the next, be sure to keep from bleeding; for though it
may be safe and proper at other times, yet it will not be so at the end
of the fourth month; and yet if blood abound, or some incidental disease
happens which requires evacuation, you may use a cupping glass, with
scarification, and a little blood may be drawn from the shoulders and
arms, especially if she has been accustomed to bleed. Let her also take
care of lacing herself too straitly, but give herself more liberty than
she used to do; for inclosing her belly in too strait a mould, she
hinders the infant from taking its free growth, and often makes it come
before its time.



_Rules for the Fourth Month._

In this month also you ought to keep the child-bearing woman from
bleeding, unless in extraordinary cases, but when the month is passed,
blood-letting and physic may be permitted, if it be gentle and mild, and
perhaps it may be necessary to prevent abortion. In this month she may
purge, in an acute disease, but purging may only be used from the
beginning of this month to the end of the sixth; but let her take care
that in purging she use no vehement medicine, nor any bitter, as aloes,
which is disagreeable and hurtful to the child, and opens the mouth of
the vessels; neither let her use coloquintida, scammony nor turbith; she
may use cassia, manna, rhubarb, agaric and senna but dyacidodium
purgans is best, with a little of the electuary of the juice of roses.



_Rules for the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Months._

In these months, child-bearing women are troubled with coughs, colds,
heart-beating, fainting, watching, pains in the loins and hips, and
bleeding. The cough is from a sharp vapour that comes to the jaws and
rough artery from the terms, or the thin part of that blood got less
into the reins of the breast; this endangers abortion, and strength
fails from watching: therefore, purge the humours that come to the
breast, with rhubarb and agaric, and strengthen the head as in a
catarrh, and give sweet lenitives as in a cough. Palpitation and
faintness arises from vapours that go to it by the arteries, or from
blood that abounds and cannot get out of the womb, but ascends and
oppresses the heart; and in this case cordials should be used both
inwardly and outwardly. Watching, is from sharp dry vapours that trouble
the animal spirits, and in this case use frictions, and let the woman
wash her feet at bed-time, and let her take syrup of poppies, dried
roses, emulsions of sweet almonds, and white poppy seed. If she be
troubled with pains in her loins and hips, as in those months she is
subject to be, from the weight of her child as it grows big and heavy,
and so stretches the ligaments of the womb and part adjacent, let her
hold it up with swathing bands about her neck. About this time also the
woman often happens to have a flux of blood, either at the nose, womb or
haemorrhoids, from plenty of blood, or from the weakness of the child
that takes it not in, or else from evil humour in the blood, that stirs
up nature and sends it forth. And sometimes it happens that the vessels
of the womb may be broken, either by some violent motion, fall, cough or
trouble of the mind (for any of these will work that effect), and this
is so dangerous, that in such a case the child cannot be well, but if it
be from blood only, the danger is less, provided it flows by the veins
of the neck of the womb, for then it prevents plethora and takes not
away the nourishment of the child; but if it proceeds from the weakness
of the child, that draws it not in, abortion of the child often follows,
or hard travail, or else she goes beyond her time. But if it flows from
the inward veins of the womb, there is more danger by the openness of
the womb, if it come from evil blood; the danger is alike from
cacochymy, which is like to fall upon both. If it arises from plethora,
open a vein, but with great caution, and use astringents, of which the
following will do well:--Take prepared pearls, a scruple; red coral, two
scruples; mace, nutmeg, each a drachm; cinnamon, half a drachm; make a
powder, or with white sugar make rolls. Or give this powder in
broth:--"Take red coral, a drachm; half a drachm precious stones; red
sander, half a drachm; bole, a drachm; scaled earth and tormental roots,
each two scruples, with sugar of roses and Manus Christi; with pearl,
five drachms; make a powder." You may also strengthen the child at the
navel, and if there be a cacochymy, alter the humours, and if you can do
it safely, evacuate; you may likewise use amulets on her hands and about
her neck. In a flux of haemorrhoids, wear off the pain, and let her
drink hot wine with a toasted nutmeg. In these months the belly is also
subject to be bound, but if it be without any apparent disease, the
broth of a chicken or veal, sodden with oil, or with the decoction of
mallows or marsh-mallows, mercury or linseed, put up in a clyster, will
not be amiss, but in less quantity than is given in other cases:--viz.
of the decoction, five ounces, of common oil, three ounces, of sugar,
two ounces, and of cassia fistula, one ounce. But if she will not take a
clyster, one or two yolks of new laid eggs, or a little peas-pottage
warm, a little salt and sugar, and supped a little before meat, will be
very convenient. But if her belly be distended and stretched with wind a
little fennel seed and aniseed reduced to a powder and mixed with honey
and sugar made after the manner of an electuary, will be very well Also,
if thighs and feet swell let them be anointed with erphodrinum (which is
a liquid medicine) made with vinegar and rose-water, mingled with salt.



_Rules for the Eighth Month._

The eighth month is commonly called the most dangerous; therefore the
greatest care and caution ought to be used, the diet better in quality,
but no more, nor indeed, so much in quantity as before, but as she must
abate her diet, she must increase her exercise; and because then women
with child, by reason that sharp humours alter the belly, are accustomed
to weaken their spirits and strength, they may well take before meat, an
electuary of diarrhoden, or aromaticum rosatum or diamagarton; and
sometimes they may lick a little honey. As they will loathe, nauseate
their meat, they may take green ginger, candied with sugar, and the
rinds of citron and oranges candied; and let them often use honey for
strengthening the infant. When she is not very far from her labour, let
her eat every day seven roasted figs before her meat, and sometimes let
her lick a little honey. But let her beware of salt and powdered meat,
for it is neither good for her nor the child.



_Rules for the Ninth Month._

In the ninth month let her have a care of lifting any great weight, but
let her move a little more, to dilate the parts, and stir up natural
heat. Let her take heed of stooping, and neither sit too much nor lie on
her sides, neither ought she to bend herself much enfolded in the
umbilical ligaments, by which means it often perisheth. Let her walk and
stir often, and let her exercise be, rather to go upwards than
downwards. Let her diet, now especially, be light and easy of digestion
and damask prunes with sugar, or figs with raisins, before meat, as also
the yolks of eggs, flesh and broth of chickens, birds, partridges and
pheasants; astringent and roasted meats, with rice, hard eggs, millet
and such like other things are proper. Baths of sweet water, with
emollient herbs, ought to be used by her this month with some
intermission, and after the baths let her belly be anointed with oil of
sweet roses and of violets; but for her privy parts, it is better to
anoint them with the fat of hens, geese or ducks, or with oil of
lilies, and the decoction of linseed and fenugreek, boiled with oil of
linseed and marshmallows, or with the following liniment:--

Take mallows and marshmallows, cut and shred, of each one ounce; of
linseed, one ounce; let them be boiled from twenty ounces of water to
ten; then let her take three ounces of the boiled broth, of oil of
almonds and oil of flower-de-luce, of each one ounce; of deer's suet,
three ounces. Let her bathe with this, and anoint herself with it, warm.

If for fourteen days before the birth, she do every morning and evening
bathe and moisten her belly with muscadine and lavender water, the child
will be much strengthened thereby. And if every day she eat toasted
bread, it will hinder anything from growing to the child. Her privy
parts must be gently stroked down with this fomentation.

"Take three ounces of linseed, and one handful each of mallows and
marshmallows sliced, then let them be put into a bag and immediately
boiled." Let the woman with child, every morning and evening, take the
vapour of this decoction in a hollow stool, taking great heed that no
wind or air come to her in-parts, and then let her wipe the part so
anointed with a linen cloth, and she may anoint the belly and groins as
at first.

When she has come so near to her time, as to be ten or fourteen days
thereof, if she begins to feel any more than ordinary pain let her use
every day the following:--"Take mallows and marshmallows, of each a
handful; camomiles, hard mercury, maidenhair, of each a handful; of
linseed, four ounces; let them be boiled in a sufficient quantity of
water as to make a bath therewith." But let her not sit too hot upon the
seat, nor higher than a little above her navel; nor let her sit upon it
longer than about half an hour, lest her strength languish and decay,
for it is better to use it often than to stay too long in it.

And thus have I shown how a child-bearing woman ought to govern herself
each month during her pregnancy. How she must order herself at her
delivery, shall be shown in another chapter, after I have first shown
the intended midwife how the child is first formed in the womb, and the
manner of its decumbiture there.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER III

     _Of the Parts proper to a Child in the womb; How it is formed
     there, and the manner of its Situation therein._


In the last chapter I treated of conception, showed what it was, how
accomplished and its signs, and how she who has conceived ought to order
herself during the time of her pregnancy. Now, before I come to speak of
her delivery, it is necessary that the midwife be first made acquainted
with the parts proper to a child in the womb, and also that she be shown
how it is formed, and the manner of its situation and decumbiture there;
which are so necessary to her, that without the knowledge thereof, no
one can tell how to deliver a woman as she ought. This, therefore, shall
be the work of this chapter. I shall begin with the first of these.



SECTION I.--_Of the Parts proper to a Child in the Womb._

In this section, I must first tell you what I mean by the parts proper
to a child in the womb; and they are only those that either help or
nourish it; and whilst it is lodged in that dark repository of nature,
and that help to clothe and defend it there and are cast away, as of no
more use, after it is born, and these are two, viz., the umbilicars, or
navel vessels, and the secundinum. By the first it is nourished, and by
the second clothed and defended from wrong. Of each of these I shall
speak distinctly; and first,



_Of the Umbilicars, or Navel Vessels._

These are four in number, viz.:--one vein, two arteries, and the vessel
which is called the urachos.

(1) The vein is that on which the infant is nourished, from the time of
its conception till the time of its delivery; till being brought into
the light of the world, it has the same way of concocting the food we
have. This vein ariseth from the liver of the child, and is divided into
two parts when it has passed the navel; and these two are divided and
subdivided, the branches being upheld by the skin called _chorion_ (of
which I speak by and by), and are joined to the veins of the mother's
womb, from whence they have their blood for the nourishment of the
child.

(2) The arteries are two on each side which proceed from the back
branches of the great artery of the mother, and the vital blood is
carried by those to the child being ready concocted by the mother.

(3) A nervous or sinewy production is led from the bottom of the
bladder of the infant to the navel, and this is called _urachos_, and
its use is, to convey the urine of the infant from the bladder to the
alantois. Anatomists do very much vary in their opinion concerning this,
some denying any such thing to be in the delivery of the woman, and
others on the contrary affirming it; but experience has testified there
is such a thing, for Bartholomew Carbrolius, the ordinary doctor of
anatomy to the College of Physicians at Montpellier in France, records
the history of a maid, whose water being a long time stopped, at last
issued out through the navel. And Johannes Fernelius speaks of the same
thing that happened to a man of thirty years of age, who having a
stoppage at the neck of the bladder, his urine issued out of his navel
for many months together, and that without any prejudice at all to his
health, which he ascribes to the ill lying of his navel, whereby the
urachos was not well dried. And Volchier Coitas quotes such another
instance in a maid of thirty-four at Nuremburg in Germany. These
instances, though they happen but seldom, are sufficient to prove that
there is such a thing as anurachos in men.

These four vessels before mentioned, viz., one vein, two arteries and
the urachos, join near the navel, and are united by a skin which they
have from the chorion and so become like a gut or rope, and are
altogether void of sensibility, and this is that which women call the
navel-string. The vessels are thus joined together, that so they may
neither be broken, severed nor entangled; and when the infant is born
are of no use save only to make up the ligament which stops the hole of
the navel and for some other physical use, etc.



_Of the Secundine or After-birth._

Setting aside the name given to this by the Greeks and Latins, it is
called in English by the name of secundine, after-birth or after-burden;
which are held to be four in number.

(1) The _first_ is called placenta, because it resembles the form of a
cake, and is knit both to the navel and chorion, and makes up the
greatest part of the secundine or after-birth. The flesh of it is like
that of the melt or spleen, soft, red and tending something to
blackness, and hath many small veins and arteries in it: and certainly
the chief use of it is, for containing the child in the womb.

(2) The _second_ is the chorion. This skin and that called the amnios,
involve the child round, both above and underneath, and on both sides,
which the alantois does not. This skin is that which is most commonly
called the secundine, as it is thick and white garnished with many small
veins and arteries, ending in the placenta before named, being very
light and slippery. Its use is, not only to cover the child round about,
but also to receive, and safely bind up the roots of the veins and
arteries or navel vessels before described.

(3) The _third_ thing which makes up the secundine in the alantois, of
which there is a great dispute amongst anatomists. Some say there is
such a thing, and others that there is not. Those who will have it to be
a membrane, say it is white, soft and exceedingly thin, and just under
the placenta, where it is knit to the urachos, from which it receives
the urine; and its office is to keep it separate from the sweat, that
the saltness of it may not offend the tender skin of the child.

(4) The _fourth_, and last covering of the child is called amnios; and
it is white, soft and transparent, being nourished by some very small
veins and arteries. Its use is, not only to enwrap the child, but also
to retain the sweat of the child.

Having thus described the parts proper to a child in the womb, I will
next proceed to speak of the formation of the child therein, as soon as
I have explained the hard terms of the section, that those for whose
help it is designed, may understand what they read. A _vein_ is that
which receives blood from the liver, and distributes in several branches
to all parts of the body. _Nerve_ is the same with _sinew_, and is that
by which the brain adds sense and motion to the body. _Placenta_,
properly signifies _sugar_ cake; but in this section it is used to
signify a spongy piece of flesh resembling a cake, full of veins and
arteries, and is made to receive a mother's blood appointed for the
infant's nourishment in the womb. The _chorion_ is an outward skin which
compasseth the child in the womb. The _amnios_ is the inner skin which
compasseth the child in the womb. The _alantois_ is the skin that holds
the urine of the child during the time that it abides in the womb. The
_urachos_ is the vessel that conveys the urine from the child in the
womb to the _alantois_. I now proceed to



SECT. II.--_Of the Formation of the Child in the Womb._

To speak of the formation of the child in the womb, we must begin where
nature begins, and, that is at the act of coition, in which the womb
having received the generative seed (without which there can be no
conception), the womb immediately shuts up itself so close that the
point of a needle cannot enter the inward orifice; and this it does,
partly to hinder the issuing out of the seed again, and partly to
cherish it by an inward heat, the better to provoke it to action; which
is one reason why women's bellies are so lank at their first conception.
The woman having thus conceived, the first thing which is operative in
conception is the spirit whereof the seed is full, which, nature
quickening by the heat of the womb, stirs up the action. The internal
spirits, therefore, separate the parts that are less pure, which are
thick, cold and clammy, from those that are more pure and noble. The
less pure are cast to the outside, and with these seed is circled round
and the membrane made, in which that seed that is most pure is wrapped
round and kept close together, that it may be defended from cold and
other accidents, and operate the better.

The first thing that is formed is the amnios; the next the chorion; and
they enwrap the seed round like a curtain. Soon after this (for the seed
thus shut up in the woman lies not idle), the navel vein is bred, which
pierceth those skins, being yet very tender, and carries a drop of blood
from the veins of the mother's womb to the seed; from which drop the
vena cava, or chief vein, proceeds, from which all the rest of the veins
which nourish the body spring; and now the seed hath something to
nourish it, whilst it performs the rest of nature's work, and also blood
administered to every part of it, to form flesh.

This vein being formed, the navel arteries are soon after formed; then
the great artery, of which all the others are but branches; and then the
heart, for the liver furnisheth the arteries with blood to form the
heart, the arteries being made of seed, but the heart and the flesh, of
blood. After this the brain is formed, and then the nerves to give sense
and motion to the infant. Afterwards the bones and flesh are formed; and
of the bones, first of all, the vertebrae or chine bones, and then the
skull, etc. As to the time in which this curious part of nature's
workmanship is formed, having already in Chapter II of the former part
of this work spoken at large upon this point, and also of the
nourishment of the child in the womb, I shall here only refer the reader
thereto, and proceed to show the manner in which the child lies in the
womb.



SECT. III.--_Of the manner of the Child's lying in the Womb._

This is a thing so essential for a midwife to know, that she can be no
midwife who is ignorant of it; and yet even about this authors
extremely differ; for there are not two in ten that agree what is the
form that the child lies in the womb, or in what fashion it lies there;
and yet this may arise in a great measure from the different times of
the women's pregnancy; for near the time of its deliverance out of those
winding chambers of nature it oftentimes changes the form in which it
lay before, for another.

I will now show the several situations of the child in the mother's
womb, according to the different times of pregnancy, by which those that
are contrary to nature, and are the chief cause of ill labours, will be
more easily conceived by the understanding midwife. It ought, therefore,
in the first place to be observed, that the infant, as well male as
female, is generally situated in the midst of the womb; for though
sometimes, to appearance a woman's belly seems higher on one side than
the other, yet it is so with respect to the belly only, and not to her
womb, in the midst of which it is always placed.

But, in the second place, a woman's great belly makes different figures,
according to the different times of pregnancy; for when she is young
with child, the embryo is always found of a round figure, a little long,
a little oblong, having the spine moderately turned inwards, and the
thighs folded, and a little raised, to which the legs are so raised,
that the heels touch the buttocks; the arms are bending, and the hands
placed upon the knees, towards which part of the body, the head is
turned downwards towards the inward orifice of the womb, tumbling as it
were over its head so that then the feet are uppermost, and the face
towards the mother's great gut; and this turning of the infant in this
manner, with its head downwards, towards the latter end of a woman's
reckoning, is so ordered by nature, that it may be thereby the better
disposed of its passage into the world at the time of its mother's
labour, which is not then far off (and indeed some children turn not at
all until the very time of birth); for in this posture all its joints
are most easily extended in coming forth; for by this means its arms and
legs cannot hinder its birth, because they cannot be bent against the
inner orifice of the womb and the rest of the body, being very supple,
passeth without any difficulty after the head, which is hard and big;
being passed the head is inclined forward, so that the chin toucheth the
breast, in which posture, it resembles one sitting to ease nature, and
stooping down with the head to see what comes from him. The spine of the
back is at that time placed towards the mother's, the head uppermost,
the face downwards; and proportionately to its growth, it extends its
members by little and little, which were exactly folded in the first
month. In this posture it usually keeps until the seventh or eighth
month, and then by a natural propensity and disposition of the upper
first. It is true there are divers children, that lie in the womb in
another posture, and come to birth with their feet downwards, especially
if there be twins; for then, by their different motions they do so
disturb one another, that they seldom come both in the same posture at
the time of labour, but one will come with the head, and another with
the feet, or perhaps lie across; but sometimes neither of them will come
right. But, however the child may be situated in the womb, or in
whatever posture it presents itself at the time of birth, if it be not
with its head forwards, as I have before described, it is always against
nature, and the delivery will occasion the more pain and danger, and
require greater care and skill from the midwife, than when the labour is
more natural.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER IV

     _A Guide for Women in Travail, showing what is to be done when they
     fall in Labour, in order to their Delivery._


The end of all that we have been treating of is, the bringing forth of a
child into the world with safety both to the mother and the infant, as
the whole time of a woman's pregnancy may be termed a kind of labour;
for, from the time of the conception to the time of her delivery, she
labours under many difficulties, is subject to many distempers, and in
continual danger, from one affection or other, till the time of birth
comes; and when that comes, the greatest labour and travail come along
with it, insomuch that then all the other labours are forgotten, and
that only is called the time of her labours, and to deliver her safely
is the principal business of the midwife; and to assist therein, shall
be the chief design of this chapter. The time of the child's being ready
for its birth, when nature endeavours to cast it forth, is that which is
properly the time of a woman's labour; nature then labouring to be eased
of its burden. And since many child-bearing women, (especially the first
child) are often mistaken in their reckoning and so, when they draw near
their time take every pain they meet with for their labour, which often
proves prejudicial and troublesome to them, when it is not so, I will in
the first section of this chapter, set down some signs, by which a woman
may know when the true time of her labour is come.



SECTION I.--_The Signs of the true Time of a Woman's Labour._

When women with child, especially of their first, perceive any
extraordinary pains in the belly, they immediately send for their
midwife, as taking it for their labour; and then if the midwife be not a
skilful and experienced woman, to know the time of labour, but takes it
for granted without further inquiry (for some such there are), and so
goes about to put her into labour before nature is prepared for it, she
may endanger the life of both mother and child, by breaking the amnios
and chorion. These pains, which are often mistaken for labour, are
removed by warm clothes laid to the belly, and the application of a
clyster or two, by which those pains which precede a true labour, are
rather furthered than hindered. There are also other pains incident to a
woman in that condition from the flux of the belly, which are easily
known by the frequent stools that follow them.

The signs, therefore, of labour, some few days before, are that the
woman's belly, which before lay high, sinks down, and hinders her from
walking so easily as she used to do; also there flow from the womb slimy
humours, which nature has appointed to moisten and smooth the passage
that its inward orifice may be the more easily dilated when there is
occasion; which beginning to open at this time, suffers that slime to
flow away, which proceeds from the Glandules called _prostata_. These
are signs preceding the labour; but when she is presently falling into
labour, the signs are, great pains about the region of the reins and
loins, which coming and retreating by intervals, are answered in the
bottom of the belly by congruous throes, and sometimes the face is red
and inflamed, the blood being much heated by the endeavours a woman
makes to bring forth her child; and likewise, because during these
strong throes her respiration is intercepted, which causes the blood to
have recourse to her face; also her privy parts are swelled by the
infant's head lying in the birth, which, by often thrusting, causes
those parts to descend outwards. She is much subject to vomiting, which
is a good sign of good labour and speedy delivery, though by ignorant
people thought otherwise; for good pains are thereby excited and
redoubled; which vomiting is excited by the sympathy there is between
the womb and the stomach. Also, when the birth is near, women are
troubled with a trembling in the thighs and legs, not with cold, like
the beginning of an ague fit, but with the heat of the whole body,
though it must be granted, this does not happen always. Also, if the
humours which then flow from the womb are discoloured with the blood,
which the midwives call _shows_, it is an infallible mark of the birth
being near. And if then the midwife puts up her fingers into the neck of
the womb, she will find the inner orifice dilated; at the opening of
which the membranes of the infant, containing the waters, present
themselves and are strongly forced down with each pain she hath; at
which time one may perceive them sometimes to resist, and then again
press forward the finger, being more or less hard and extended,
according as the pains are stronger or weaker. These membranes, with the
waters in them, when they are before the head of the child, midwives
call _the gathering of the waters_, resemble to the touch of the fingers
those eggs which have no shell, but are covered only with a simple
membrane. After this, the pains still redoubling the membranes are
broken by a strong impulsation of these waters, which flow away, and
then the head of the infant is presently felt naked, and presents
itself at the inward orifice of the womb. When these waters come thus
away, then the midwife may be assured the birth is very near, this being
the most certain sign that can be; for the _amnios alantois_, which
contained these waters, being broken by the pressing forward of the
birth, the child is no better able to subsist long in the womb
afterwards than a naked man in a heap of snow. Now, these waters, if the
child comes presently after them, facilitate the labour by making the
passage slippery; and therefore, let no midwife (as some have foolishly
done) endeavour to force away the water, for nature knows best when the
true time of birth is, and therefore retains the waters till that time.
But if by accident the water breaks away too long before the birth, then
such things as will hasten it, may be safely administered, and what
these are, I will show in another section.



SECT. II.--_How a Woman ought to be ordered when the time of her labour
    is come._

When it is known that the true time of her labour is come by the signs
laid down in the foregoing, of which those most to be relied upon are
pains and strong throes in the belly, forcing downwards towards the
womb, and a dilation of the inward orifice, which may be perceived by
touching it with the finger, and the gathering of the waters before the
head of the child, and thrusting down the membranes which contain them;
through which, between the pains, one may in some manner with the finger
discover the part which presents itself (as we have said before),
especially if it be the head of the child, by its roundness and
hardness; I say, if these things concur and are evident, the midwife may
be sure it is the time of the woman's labour, and care must be taken to
get all those things that are necessary to comfort her at that time. And
the better to help her, be sure to see that she is not tightly laced;
you must also give her one strong clyster or more, if there be occasion,
provided it be done at the beginning, and before the child be too
forward, for it will be difficult for her to receive them afterwards.
The benefit accruing therefrom will be, that they excite the gut to
discharge itself of its excrements, so that the rectum being emptied
there may be the more space for the dilation of the passage; likewise to
cause the pains to bear the more downward, through the endeavours she
makes when she is at stool, and in the meantime, all other necessary
things for her labour should be put in order, both for the mother and
the child. To this end, some get a midwife's; but a pallet bed, girded,
is much the best way, placed near the fire, if the season so require,
which pallet ought to be so placed, that there may be easy access to it
on every side, that the woman may be the more easily assisted, as there
is occasion.

If the woman abounds with blood, to bleed her a little more may not be
improper, for thereby she will both breathe the better, and have her
breasts more at liberty, and likewise more strength to bear down her
pains; and this may be done without danger because the child being about
ready to be born, has no more need of the mother's blood for its
nourishment; besides, this evacuation does many times prevent her having
a fever after delivery. Also, before her delivery, if her strength will
permit, let her walk up and down her chamber; and that she may have
strength so to do, it will be necessary to give her good strengthening
things, such as jelly, broth, new laid eggs, or some spoonfuls of burnt
wine; and let her by all means hold out her pains, bearing them down as
much as she can, at the time when they take her; and let the midwife
from time to time touch the inward orifice with her finger, to know
whether the waters are ready to break and whether the birth will follow
soon after. Let her also anoint the woman's privities with emollient
oil, hog's grease, and fresh butter, if she find they are hard to be
dilated. Let the midwife, likewise, all the time be near the labouring
woman, and diligently observe her gestures, complaints, and pains, for
by this she may guess pretty well how far her labour advanceth, because
when she changeth her ordinary groans into loud cries, it is a sign that
the child is near the birth; for at the time her pains are greater and
more frequent. Let the woman likewise, by intervals, rest herself upon
the bed to regain her strength, but not too long, especially if she be
little, short and thick, for such women have always worse labour if they
lie long on their beds in their travail. It is better, therefore, that
she walk about her chamber as long as she can, the woman supporting her
under the arms, if it be necessary; for by this means, the weight of the
child causes the inward orifices of the womb to dilate the sooner than
in bed, and if her pains be stronger and more frequent, her labour will
not be near so long. Let not the labouring woman be concerned at those
qualms and vomitings which, perhaps, she may find come upon her, for
they will be much for her advantage in the issue, however uneasy she may
be for a time, as they further her pains and throes by provoking
downward.

When the waters of the child are ready and gathered (which may be
perceived through the membranes presenting themselves to the orifice)
to the bigness of the whole dilatation, the midwife ought to let them
break of themselves, and not, like some hasty midwives, who being
impatient of the woman's long labour, break them, intending thereby to
hasten their business, when instead thereof, they retard it; for by the
too hasty breaking of these waters (which nature designed to make the
child slip more easy), the passage remains dry by which means the pains
and throes of the labouring woman are less efficacious to bring forth
the infant than they would otherwise have been. It is, therefore, much
the better way to let the waters break of themselves; after which the
midwife may with ease feel the child by that part which first presents,
and thereby discern whether it comes right, that is, with the head
foremost, for that is the proper and most natural way of the birth. If
the head comes right, she will find it big, round, hard and equal; but
if it be any other part, she will find it rugged, unequal, soft and
hard, according to the nature of the part it is. And this being the true
time when a woman ought to be delivered, if nature be not wanting to
perform its office, therefore, when the midwife finds the birth thus
coming forward let her hasten to assist and deliver it, for it
ordinarily happens soon after, if it be natural.

But if it happens, as it sometimes may, that the waters break away too
long before the birth, in such a case, those things which hasten nature
may safely be administered. For which purpose make use of pennyroyal,
dittany, juniper berries, red coral, betony and feverfew, boiled in
white wine, and give a drachm of it, or it would be much better to take
the juice of it when it is in its prime, which is in May, and having
clarified it, make it into a syrup with double its weight of sugar, and
keep it all the year, to use when occasion calls for it; mugwort used in
the same manner is also good in this case; also a drachm of cinnamon
powder given inwardly profits much in this case; and so does tansey
broiled and applied to the privities; or an oil of it, so, made and
used, as you were taught before. The stone _aetites_ held to the
privities, is of extraordinary virtue, and instantly draws away, both
child and after-burden; but great care must be taken to remove it
presently, or it will draw forth womb and all; for such is the magnetic
virtue of this stone that both child and womb follow it as readily as
iron doth the load-stone or the load-stone the north star.

There are many things that physicians affirm are good in this case;
among which are an ass's or horse's hoof, hung near the privities; a
piece of red coral hung near the said place. A load-stone helps very
much, held in the woman's left hand; or the skin cut off a snake, girt
about the middle, next to the skin. These things are mentioned by
Mizaldus, but setting those things aside, as not so certain,
notwithstanding Mizaldus quotes them, the following prescriptions are
very good to speedy deliverance to women in travail.

(1) A decoction of white wine made in savory, and drank.

(2) Take wild tansey, or silver weed, bruise it, and apply to the
woman's nostrils.

(3) Take date stones, and beat them to powder, and let her take half a
drachm of them in white wine at a time.

(4) Take parsley and bruise it and press out the juice, and dip a linen
cloth in it, and put it so dipped into the mouth of the womb; it will
presently cause the child to come away, though it be dead, and it will
bring away the after-burden. Also the juice of the parsley is a thing of
so great virtue (especially stone parsley) that being drank by a woman
with child, it cleanseth not only the womb, but also the child in the
womb, of all gross humours.

(5) A scruple of castorum in powder, in any convenient liquor, is very
good to be taken in such a case, and so also is two or three drops of
castorum in any convenient liquor; or eight or nine drops of spirits of
myrrh given in any convenient liquor, gives speedy deliverance.

(6) Give a woman in such a case another woman's milk to drink; it will
cause speedy delivery, and almost without pain.

(7) The juice of leeks, being drunk with warm water, highly operates to
cause speedy delivery.

(8) Take peony seeds and beat them into a powder, and mix the powder
with oil, with which oil anoint the privities of the woman and child; it
will give her deliverance speedily, and with less pain than can be
imagined.

(9) Take a swallow's nest and dissolve it in water, strain it, and drink
it warm, it gives delivery with great speed and much ease.

Note this also in general, that all that move the terms are good for
making the delivery easy, such as myrrh, white amber in white wine, or
lily water, two scruples or a drachm; or cassia lignea, dittany, each a
drachm; cinnamon, half a drachm, saffron, a scruple; give a drachm, or
take borax mineral, a drachm, and give it in sack; or take cassia
lignea, a drachm; dittany, amber, of each a drachm; cinnamon, borax, of
each a drachm and a half; saffron, a scruple, and give her half a
drachm; or give her some drops of oil of hazel in convenient liquor; or
two or three drops of oil of cinnamon in vervain water. Some prepare
the secundine thus:--Take the navel-string and dry it in an oven, take
two drachms of the powder, cinnamon a drachm, saffron half a scruple,
with the juice of savin make trochisks; give two drachms; or wash the
secundine in wine and bake it in a pot; then wash it in endive water and
wine, take half a drachm of it; long pepper, galangal, of each half a
drachm; plantain and endive seed, of each half a drachm; lavender seed,
four scruples; make a powder, or take laudanum, two drachms; storax,
calamite, benzoin, of each half a drachm; musk, ambergris each six
grains, make a powder or trochisks for a fume. Or use pessaries to
provoke the birth; take galbanum dissolved in vinegar, an ounce; myrrh,
two drachms, with oil of oat make a pessary.



_An Ointment For the Navel._

Take oil of keir, two ounces, juice of savine an ounce, of leeks and
mercury, each half an ounce; boil them to the consumption of the juice;
add galbanum dissolved in vinegar, half an ounce, myrrh, two drachms,
storax liquid a drachm, round bitwort, sowbread, cinnamon, saffron, a
drachm, with wax make an ointment and apply it.

If the birth be retarded through the weakness of the mother, refresh
her by applying wine and soap to the nose, confect. alkermas. diamarg.

These things may be applied to help nature in her delivery when the
child comes to the birth the right way, and yet the birth be retarded;
but if she finds the child comes the wrong way, and that she is not able
to deliver the woman as she ought to be, by helping nature, and saving
both mother and child (for it is not enough to lay a woman if it might
be done any other way with more safety and ease, and less hazard to
woman and child), then let her send speedily for the better and more
able to help; and not as I once knew a midwife do, who, when a woman she
was to deliver had hard labour, rather than a man-midwife should be sent
for, undertook to deliver the woman herself (though told it was a man's
business), and in her attempting it, brought away the child, but left
the head in the mother's womb; and had not a man midwife been presently
sent for, the mother had lost her life as well as the child; such
persons may rather be termed butchers than midwives. But supposing the
woman's labour to be natural, I will next show what the midwife ought to
do, in order of her delivery.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER V

     _Of Natural Labour; What it is and what the Midwife is to do in
     such Labour._


SECTION I.--_What Natural Labour is._

There are four things which denominate a woman's natural labour; the
first is, that it be at the full time, for if a woman comes before her
time, it cannot be termed natural labour, neither will it be so easy as
though she had completed her nine months. The second thing is, that it
be speedy, and without any ill accident; for when the time of her birth
come, nature is not dilatory in the bringing it forth, without some ill
accident intervene, which renders it unnatural.

The third is, that the child be alive; for all will grant, that the
being delivered of a dead child is very unnatural. The fourth is, that
the child come right, for if the position of the child in the womb be
contrary to that which is natural, the event will prove it so, by making
that which should be a time of life, the death both of the mother and
the child.

Having thus told you what I mean by natural labour, I shall next show
how the midwife is to proceed therein, in order to the woman's
delivery. When all the foregoing requisites concur, and after the
waters be broken of themselves, let there rather a quilt be laid upon
the pallet bedstead than a feather bed, having there-on linen and cloths
in many folds, with such other things as are necessary, and that may be
changed according to the exigency requiring it, so that the woman may
not be incommoded with the blood, waters and other filth which are
voided in labour. The bed ought to be ordered, that the woman being
ready to be delivered, should lie on her back upon it, having her body
in a convenient posture; this is, her head and breast a little raised,
so that she may be between lying and sitting, for being so placed, she
is best capable of breathing, and, likewise, will have more strength to
bear her pains than if she lay otherwise, or sunk down in her bed. Being
so placed, she must spread her thighs abroad, folding her legs a little
towards her buttocks, somewhat raised by a little pillow underneath, to
the end that her rumps should have more liberty to retire back; and let
her feet be stayed against some firm thing; besides this, let her take
firm hold of some of the good women attending her, with her hands, that
she may the better stay herself during her pains. She being thus placed
at her bed, having her midwife at hand, the better to assist as nature
may require, let her take courage, and help her pains as best she can,
bearing them down when they take her, which she must do by holding her
breath, and forcing them as much as possible, in like manner as when she
goes to stool, for by such straining, the diaphragm, or midriff, being
strongly thrust downward, necessarily forces down the womb and the child
in it. In the meantime, let the midwife endeavour to comfort her all she
can, exhorting her to bear her labour courageously, telling her it will
be quickly over, and that there is no fear but that she will have a
speedy delivery. Let the midwife also, having no rings on her fingers,
anoint them with oil of fresh butter, and therewith dilate gently the
inward orifice of the womb putting her finger ends into the entry
thereof, and then stretch them one from the other, when her pains take
her; by this means endeavouring to help forward the child, and thrusting
by little and little, the sides of the orifice towards the hinder part
of the child's head, anointing it with fresh butter if it be necessary.

When the head of the infant is a little advanced into the inward
orifice, the midwife's phrase is:--"It is crowned"; because it girds and
surrounds it just as a crown; but when it is so far that the extremities
begin to appear without the privy parts, then they say, "The infant is
in the passage"; and at this time the woman feels herself as if it were
scratched, or pricked with pins, and is ready to imagine that the
midwife hurts her, when it is occasioned by the violent distension of
those parts and the laceration which sometimes the bigness of the
child's head causeth there. When things are in this posture, let the
midwife seat herself conveniently to receive the child, which will come
quickly, and with her finger ends (which she must be sure to keep close
pared) let her endeavour to thrust the crowning of the womb (of which I
have spoken before), back over the head of the child, and as soon as it
is advanced as far as the ears, or thereabouts, let her take hold of the
two sides with her two hands, that when a good pain comes she may
quickly draw forth the child, taking care that the navel-string be not
entangled about the neck or any part, as sometimes it is, lest thereby
the after-burden be pulled with violence, and perhaps the womb also, to
which it is fastened, and so either cause her to flood or else break the
strings, both which are of bad consequence to the woman, whose delivery
may thereby be rendered the more difficult. It must also be carefully
observed that the head be not drawn forth straight, but shaking it a
little from one side to the other, that the shoulders may sooner and
easier take their places immediately after it is past, without losing
time, lest the head being past, the child be stopped there by the
largeness of the shoulders, and so come in danger of being suffocated
and strangled in the passage, as it sometimes happens, for the want of
care therein. But as soon as the head is born, if there be need, she may
slide her fingers under the armpits, and the rest of the body will
follow without any difficulty.

As soon as the midwife hath in this manner drawn forth the child, let
her put it on one side, lest the blood and water which follows
immediately, should do it any injury by running into its mouth and nose,
as they would do, if it lay on its back; and so endanger the choking of
it. The child being thus born, the next thing requisite is, to bring
away the after-burden, but before that let the midwife be very careful
to examine whether there be more children in the womb; for sometimes a
woman may have twins that expected it not; which the midwife may easily
know by the continuance of the pains after the child is born, and the
bigness of the mother's belly. But the midwife may be sure of it, if she
puts her hand up to the entry of the womb, and finds there another
watery gathering, and the child in it presenting to the passage, and if
she find it so, she must have a care of going to fetch the after-birth,
till the woman be delivered of all the children she is pregnant with.
Wherefore the first string must be cut, being first tied with a thread
three or four times double, and fasten the other end with string to the
woman's thighs, to prevent the inconvenience it may cause by hanging
between the thighs; and then removing the child already born, she must
take care to deliver her of the rest, observing all the circumstances as
with the first; after which, it will be necessary to fetch away the
after-birth, or births. But of that I shall treat in another section,
and first show what is to be done to the new-born infant.



SECT. II.--_Of the Cutting of the Child's Navel String._

Though this is accounted by many but as a trifle, yet great care is to
be taken about it, and it shows none of the least art and skill of a
midwife to do it as it should be; and that it may be so done, the
midwife should observe: (1) The time. (2) The place. (3) The manner. (4)
The event.

(1) The time is, as soon as ever the infant comes out of the womb,
whether it brings part of the after-burden with it or not; for
sometimes the child brings into the world a piece of the amnios upon its
head, and is what mid wives call the _caul_, and ignorantly attribute
some extraordinary virtue to the child so born; but this opinion is only
the effect of their ignorance; for when a child is born with such a
crown (as some call it) upon its brows, it generally betokens weakness
and denotes a short life. But to proceed to the matter in hand. As soon
as the child comes into the world, it should be considered whether it is
weak or strong; and if it be weak, let the midwife gently put back part
of the natural and vital blood into the body of the child by its navel;
for that recruits a weak child (the vital and natural spirits being
communicated by the mother to the child by its navel-string), but if the
child be strong, the operation is needless. Only let me advise you, that
many children that are born seemingly dead, may soon be brought to life
again, if you squeeze six or seven drops of blood out of that part of
the navel-string which is cut off, and give it to the child inwardly.

(2) As to the place in which it should be cut, that is, whether it
should be cut long or short, it is that which authors can scarcely agree
in, and which many midwives quarrel about; some prescribing it to be cut
at four fingers' breadth, which is, at best, but an uncertain rule,
unless all fingers were of one size. It is a received opinion, that the
parts adapted to the generation are contracted and dilated according to
the cutting of the navel-string, and this is the reason why midwives are
generally so kind to their own sex, that they leave a longer part of the
navel-string of a male than female, because they would have the males
well provided for the encounters of Venus; and the reason they give, why
they cut that of the female shorter is, because they believe it makes
them more acceptable to their husbands. Mizaldus was not altogether of
the opinion of these midwives, and he, therefore, ordered the navel
string to be cut long both in male and female children; for which he
gives the following reason, that the instrument of generation follows
the proportion of it; and therefore, if it be cut too short in a female,
it will be a hindrance to her having children. I will not go about to
contradict the opinions of Mizaldus; these, experience has made
good:--That one is, that if the navel-string of a child, after it be
cut, be suffered to touch the ground, the child will never hold its
water, either sleeping or waking, but will be subjected to an
involuntary making of water all its lifetime. The other is, that a piece
of a child's navel-string carried about one, so that it touch his skin,
defends him that wears it from the falling sickness and convulsions.

(3) As to the manner it must be cut, let the midwife take a brown
thread, four or five times double, of an ell long, or thereabouts, tied
with a single knot at each of the ends, to prevent their entangling; and
with this thread so accommodated (which the woman must have in readiness
before the woman's labour, as also a good pair of scissors, that no time
may be lost) let her tie the string within an inch of the belly with a
double knot, and turning about the end of the thread, let her tie two
more on the other side of the string, reiterating it again, if it be
necessary; then let her cut off the navel-string another inch below the
ligatures, towards the after-birth, so that there only remains but two
inches of the string, in the midst of which will be the knot we speak
of, which must be so close knit, as not to suffer a drop of blood to
squeeze out of the vessels, but care must be taken, not to knit it so
strait, as to out it in two, and therefore the thread must be pretty
thick and pretty strait cut, it being better too strait than too loose;
for some children have miserably lost their lives, with all their blood,
before it was discovered, because the navel-string was not well tied,
therefore great care must be taken that no blood squeeze through; for if
there do, a new knot must be made with the rest of the string. You need
not fear to bind the navel-string very hard because it is void of sense,
and that part which you leave, falls off in a very few days, sometimes
in six or seven, or sooner, but never tarries longer than eight or nine.
When you have thus cut the navel-string, then take care the piece that
falls off touch not the ground, for the reason I told you Mizaldus gave,
which experience has justified.

(4) The last thing I mentioned, was the event or consequence, or what
follows cutting the navel-string. As soon as it is cut, apply a little
cotton or lint to the place to keep it warm, lest the cold enter into
the body of the child, which it most certainly will do, if you have not
bound it hard enough. If the lint or cotton you apply to it, be dipped
in oil of roses, it will be the better, and then put another small rag
three or four times double upon the belly; upon the top of all, put
another small bolster, and then swathe it with a linen swathe, four
fingers broad, to keep it steady, lest by moving too much, or from being
continually stirred from side to side, it comes to fall off before the
navel-string, which you left remaining, is fallen off.

It is the usual custom of midwives to put a piece of burnt rag to it,
which we commonly call tinder; but I would rather advise them to put a
little ammoniac to it, because of its drying qualities.



SECT. III.--_How to bring away the After-burden._

A woman cannot be said to be fairly delivered, though the child be born,
till the after-burden be also taken from her; herein differing from most
animals, who, when they have brought forth their young, cast forth
nothing else but some water, and the membranes which contained them. But
women have an after-labour, which sometimes proves more dangerous than
the first; and how to bring it safely away without prejudice to her,
shall be my business to show in this section.

As soon as the child is born, before the midwife either ties or cuts the
navel-string, lest the womb should close, let her take the string and
wind it once or twice about one or two fingers on her left hand joined
together, the better to hold it, with which she may draw it moderately,
and with the right hand, she may only take a single hold of it, above
the left, near the privities, drawing likewise with that very gently,
resting the while the forefinger of the same hand, extended and
stretched forth along the string towards the entrance of the vagina,
always observing, for the greater facility, to draw it from the side
where the burden cleaves least; for in so doing, the rest will separate
the better; and special care must be taken that it be not drawn forth
with too much violence, lest by breaking the string near the burden, the
midwife be obliged to put the whole hand into the womb to deliver the
woman; and she need to be a very skilful person that undertakes it, lest
the womb, to which the burden is sometimes very strongly fastened, be
drawn away with it, as has sometimes happened. It is, therefore, best to
use such remedies as may assist nature. And here take notice, that what
brings away the birth, will also bring away the after-birth. And
therefore, for effecting this work, I will lay down the following rules.

(1) Use the same means of bringing away the after-birth, that you made
use of to bring away the birth; for the same care and circumspection are
needful now that there were then.

(2) Considering that the labouring woman cannot but be much spent by
what she has already undergone in bringing forth the infant, be
therefore sure to give her something to comfort her. And in this case
good jelly broths, also a little wine and toast in it, and other
comforting things, will be necessary.

(3) A little hellebore in powder, to make her sneeze, is in this case
very proper.

(4) Tansey, and the stone aetites, applied as before directed, are also
of good use in this case.

(5) If you take the herb vervain, and either boil it in wine, or a syrup
with the juice of it, which you may do by adding to it double its weight
of sugar (having clarified the juice before you boil it), a spoonful of
that given to the woman is very efficacious to bring away the secundine;
and feverfew and mugwort have the same operation taken as the former.

(6) Alexanders[10] boiled in wine, and the wine drank, also sweet
servile, sweet cicily, angelica roots, and musterwort, are excellent
remedies in this case.

(7) Or, if this fail, the smoke of marigolds, received up a woman's
privities by a funnel, have been known to bring away the after-birth,
even when the midwife let go her hold.

(8) Boil mugwort in water till it be very soft, then take it out, and
apply it in the manner of a poultice to the navel of the labouring
woman, and it instantly brings away the birth. But special care must be
taken to remove it as soon as they come away, lest by its long tarrying
it should draw away the womb also.



SECT. IV.--_Of Laborious and Difficult Labours and how the Midwife is
    to proceed therein._

There are three sorts of bad labours, all painful and difficult, but not
all properly unnatural. It will be necessary, therefore, to distinguish
these.

The _first_ of these labours is that when the mother and child suffer
very much extreme pain and difficulty, even though the child come right;
and this is distinguishably called the laborious labour.

The _second_ is that which is difficult and differs not much from the
former, except that, besides those extraordinary pains, it is generally
attended with some unhappy accident, which, by retarding the birth,
causes the difficulty; but these difficulties being removed, it
accelerates the birth, and hastens the delivery.

Some have asked, what is the reason that women bring forth their
children with so much pain? I answer, the sense of feeling is
distributed to the whole body by the nerves, and the mouth of the womb
being so narrow, that it must of necessity be dilated at the time of the
woman's delivery, the dilating thereof stretches the nerves, and from
thence comes the pain. And therefore the reason why some women have more
pain in their labour than others, proceeds from their having the mouth
of the matrix more full of nerves than others. The best way to remove
those difficulties that occasion hard pains and labour, is to show first
from whence they proceed. Now the difficulty of labour proceeds either
from the mother, or child, or both.

From the mother, by reason of the indisposition of the body, or from
some particular part only, and chiefly the womb, as when the woman is
weak, and the mother is not active to expel the burden, or from
weakness, or disease, or want of spirits; or it may be from strong
passion of the mind with which she was once possessed; she may also be
too young, and so may have the passage too narrow; or too old, and then,
if it be her first child, because her pains are too dry and hard, and
cannot be easily dilated, as happens also to them which are too lean;
likewise those who are small, short or deformed, as crooked women who
have not breath enough to help their pains, and to bear them down,
persons that are crooked having sometimes the bones of the passage not
well shaped. The colic also hinders labour, by preventing the true
pains; and all great and active pains, as when the woman is taken with a
great and violent fever, a great flooding, frequent convulsions, bloody
flux, or any other great distemper. Also, excrements retained cause
great difficulty, and so does a stone in the bladder: or when the
bladder is full of urine, without being able to void it, or when the
woman is troubled with great and painful piles. It may also be from the
passages, when the membranes are thick, the orifice too narrow, and the
neck of the womb not sufficiently open, the passages strained and
pressed by tumours in the adjacent parts, or when the bones are too
firm, and will not open, which very much endangers the mother and the
child; or when the passages are not slippery, by reason of the waters
having broken too soon, or membranes being too thin. The womb may also
be out of order with regard to its bad situation or conformation, having
its neck too narrow, hard and callous, which may easily be so naturally,
or may come by accident, being many times caused by a tumour, an
imposthume, ulcer or superfluous flesh.

As to hard labour occasioned by the child, it is when the child happens
to stick to a mole, or when it is so weak it cannot break the membranes;
or if it be too big all over, or in the head only; or if the natural
vessels are twisted about its neck; when the belly is hydropsical; or
when it is monstrous, having two heads, or joined to another child,
also, when the child is dead or so weak that it can contribute nothing
to its birth; likewise when it comes wrong, or there are two or more.
And to all these various difficulties there is oftentimes one more, and
that is, the ignorance of the midwife, who for want of understanding in
her business, hinders nature in her work instead of helping her.

Having thus looked into the cause of hard labour, I will now show the
industrious midwife how she may minister some relief to the labouring
woman under these difficult circumstances. But it will require judgment
and understanding in the midwife, when she finds a woman in difficult
labour, to know the particular obstruction, or cause thereof, that so a
suitable remedy may be applied; as for instance, when it happens by the
mother's being too young and too narrow, she must be gently treated, and
the passages anointed with oil, hog's lard, or fresh butter, to relax
and dilate them the easier, lest there should happen a rupture of any
part when the child is born; for sometimes the peritoneum breaks, with
the skin from the privities to the fundament.

But if the woman be in years with her first child, let her lower parts
be anointed to mollify the inward orifice, which in such a case being
more hard and callous, does not easily yield to the distention of
labour, which is the true cause why such women are longer in labour, and
also why their children, being forced against the inward orifice of the
womb (which, as I have said, is a little callous) are born with great
bumps and bruises on their heads.

Those women who are very small and mis-shaped, should not be put to bed,
at least until the waters are broken, but rather kept upright and
assisted to walk about the chamber, by being supported under the arms;
for by that means, they will breathe more freely, and mend their pains
better than on the bed, because there they lie all of a heap. As for
those that are very lean, and have hard labour from that cause, let them
moisten the parts with oil and ointments, to make them more smooth and
slippery, that the head of the infant, and the womb be not so compressed
and bruised by the hardness of the mother's bones which form the
passage. If the cause be weakness, she ought to be strengthened, the
better to support her pains, to which end give her good jelly broths,
and a little wine with a toast in it. If she fears her pains, let her be
comforted, assuring her that she will not endure any more, but be
delivered in a little time. But if her pains be slow and small, or none
at all, they must be provoked by frequent and pretty strong clysters;
let her walk about her chamber, so that the weight of the child may help
them forward. If she flood or have strong convulsions she must then be
helped by a speedy delivery; the operation I shall relate in this
section of unnatural labours. If she be costive, let her use clysters,
which may also help to dispel colic, at those times very injurious
because attended with useless pains, and because such bear not downward,
and so help not to forward the birth. If she find an obstruction or
stoppage of the urine, by reason of the womb's bearing too much on the
bladder, let her lift up her belly a little with her hands, and try if
by that she receives any benefit; if she finds she does not, it will be
necessary to introduce a catheter into her bladder, and thereby draw
forth her urine. If the difficulty be from the ill posture of the woman,
let her be placed otherwise, in a posture more suitable and convenient
for her; also if it proceeds from indispositions of the womb, as from
its oblique situation, etc., it must be remedied, as well as it can be,
by the placing her body accordingly; or, if it be a vicious
conformation, having the neck too hard, too callous, too straight, it
must be anointed with oil and ointments, as before directed. If the
membranes be so strong that the waters do not break in due time, they
may be broken with the fingers, if the midwife be first well assured
that the child is come forward into the passage, and ready to follow
presently after; or else, by the breaking of the waters too soon, the
child may be in danger of remaining dry a long time; to supply which
defect, you may moisten the parts with fomentations, decoctions, and
emollient oils; which yet is not half so well as when nature does her
work in her own time, with the ordinary slime and waters. The membranes
sometimes do press forth with the waters, three or four fingers' breadth
out of the body before the child resembling a bladder full of water; but
there is no great danger in breaking them, if they be not already
broken; for when the case is so, the child is always in readiness to
follow, being in the passage, but let the midwife be very careful not to
pull it with her hand, lest the after-burden be thereby loosened before
its time, for it adheres thereto very strongly. If the navel-string
happen to come first, it must presently be put up again, and kept so, if
possible, or otherwise, the woman must be immediately delivered. But if
the after-burden should come first, it must not be put up again by any
means; for the infant having no further occasion for it, it would be but
an obstacle if it were put up; in this case, it must be cut off, having
tied the navel-string, and afterwards draw forth the child with all
speed that may be, lest it be suffocated.



SECT. V.--_Of Women labouring of a dead Child._

When the difficulty of labour arises from a dead child, it is a great
danger to a mother and great care ought to be taken therein; but before
anything be done, the midwife ought to be well assured that the child is
dead indeed, which may be known by these signs.

(1) The breast suddenly slacks, or falls flat, or bags down. (2) A great
coldness possesses the belly of the mother, especially about the navel.
(3) Her urine is thick, with a filthy stinking settling at the bottom.
(4) No motion of the child can be perceived; for the trial whereof, let
the midwife put her hand into warm water, and lay it upon the belly, for
that, if it is alive, will make it stir. (5) She is very subject to
dreams of dead men, and affrighted therewith. (6) She has extraordinary
longings to eat such things as are contrary to nature. (7) Her breath
stinks, though not used so to do. (8) When she turns herself in her bed,
the child sways that way like a lump of lead.

These things being carefully observed, the midwife may make a judgment
whether the child be alive or dead, especially if the woman take the
following prescription:--"Take half a pint of white wine and burn it,
and add thereto half an ounce of cinnamon, but no other spices
whatever, and when she has drunk it, if her travailing pains come upon
her, the child is certainly dead; but if not, the child may possibly be
either weak or sick, but not dead. This will bring her pains upon her if
it be dead, and will refresh the child and give her ease if it be
living; for cinnamon refresheth and strengtheneth the child.

Now, if upon trial it be found the child is dead, let the mother do all
she can to forward the delivery, because a dead child can in no wise be
helpful therein. It will be necessary, therefore, that she take some
comfortable things to prevent her fainting, by reason of the putrid
vapours arising from the dead child. And in order to her delivery let
her take the following herbs boiled in white wine (or at least as many
of them as you can get), viz., dittany, betony, pennyroyal, sage,
feverfew, centaury, ivy leaves and berries. Let her also take sweet
basil in powder, and half a drachm at a time in white wine; let her
privities also be anointed with the juice of the garden tansey. Or take
the tansey in the summer when it can most plentifully be had, and before
it runs up to flower, and having bruised it well, boil it in oil until
the juice of it be consumed. If you set it in the sun, after you have
mixed it with oil, it will be more effectual. This, an industrious
midwife, who would be prepared against all events, ought to have always
by her. As to the manner of her delivery, the same methods must be used
as are mentioned in the section of natural labour. And here again, I
cannot but commend the stone aetites, held near the privities, whose
magnetic virtue renders it exceedingly necessary on this occasion, for
it draws the child any way with the same facility that the load-stone
draws iron.

Let the midwife also make a strong decoction of hyssop with water, and
let the woman drink it very hot, and it will in a little time bring away
the dead child.

If, as soon as she is delivered of the dead child, you are in doubt that
part of the afterbirth is left behind in the body (for in such cases as
these many times it rots, and comes away piece-meal), let her continue
drinking the same decoction until her body be cleansed.

A decoction made of herbs, muster-wort, used as you did the decoction of
hyssop, works the effect. Let the midwife also take the roots of
pollodum and stamp them well; warm them a little and bind them on the
sides of her feet, and it will soon bring away the child either dead or
alive.

The following medicines also are such as stir up the expulsive faculty,
but in this case they must be stronger, because the motion of the child
ceases.

Take savine, round birthwort, trochisks of myrrh, castor, cinnamon and
saffron, each half a drachm; make a powder, give a drachm.

Or she may purge first, and then apply an emollient, anointing her about
the womb with oil of lilies, sweet almonds, camomiles, hen and
goose-grease. Also foment to get out the child, with a decoction of
mercury, orris, wild cucumbers, saecus, broom flowers. Then anoint the
privities and loins with ointment of sow-bread. Or, take coloquintida,
agaric, birthwort, of each a drachm; make a powder, add ammoniacum
dissolved in wine, ox-gall, each two drachms. Or make a fume with an
ass's hoof burnt, or gallianum, or castor, and let it be taken in with a
funnel.

To take away pains and strengthen the parts, foment with the decoction
of mugwort, mallows, rosemary, with wood myrtle, St. John's wort, each
half an ounce, spermaceti two drachms, deer's suet, an ounce; with wax
make an ointment. Or take wax six ounces, spermaceti an ounce; melt
them, dip flux therein, and lay it all over her belly.

If none of these things will do, the last remedy is to try surgery, and
then the midwife ought without delay to send for an expert and able
man-midwife, to deliver her by manual operation, of which I shall treat
more at large in the next chapter.



FOOTNOTES:

[10] Horse-parsley.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER VI

     _Of Unnatural Labour._


In showing the duty of a midwife, when the child-bearing woman's labour
is unnatural, it will be requisite to show, in the first place, what I
mean by unnatural labour, for that women do bring forth in pain and
sorrow is natural and common to all. Therefore, that which I call
unnatural is, when the child comes to the birth in a contrary posture to
that which nature ordained, and in which the generality of the children
come into the world.

The right and natural birth is when the child comes with its head first;
and yet this is too short a definition of a natural birth; for if any
part of the head but the crown comes first, so that the body follows not
in a straight line, it is a wrong and difficult birth, even though the
head comes first. Therefore, if the child comes with its feet first, or
with the side across, it is quite contrary to nature, or to speak more
plainly, that which I call unnatural.

Now, there are four general ways a child may come wrong. (1) When any of
the foreparts of the body first present themselves. (2) When by an
unhappy transposition, any of the hinder parts of the body first present
themselves. (3) When either of the sides, or, (4) the feet present
themselves first. To these, the different wrong postures that a child
can present itself in, may be reduced.



SECTION I.--_How to deliver a Woman of a Dead Child by Manual
   Operation._

When manual operation is necessary, let the operator acquaint the woman
of the absolute necessity there is for such an operation; and that, as
the child has already lost its life, there is no other way left for the
saving hers. Let him also inform her, for her encouragement, that he
doubts not, with the divine blessing, to deliver her safely, and that
the pains arising therefrom will not be so great as she fears. Then let
him stir up the woman's pains by giving her some sharp clyster, to
excite her throes to bear down, and bring forth the child. And if this
prevails not, let him proceed with the manual operation.

First, therefore, let her be placed across the bed that he may operate
the easier; and let her lie on her back, with her hips a little higher
than her head, or at least the body equally placed, when it is necessary
to put back or turn the infant to give it a better posture. Being thus
situated, she must fold her legs so as her heels be towards her
buttocks, and her thighs spread, and so held by a couple of strong
persons, there must be others also to support her under her arms, that
the body may not slide down when the child is drawn forth; for which
sometimes great strength is required. Let the sheets and blankets cover
her thighs for decency's sake, and with respect to the assistants, and
also to prevent her catching cold; the operator herein governing himself
as well with respect to his convenience, and the facility and surety of
the operation, as to other things. Then let him anoint the entrance to
the womb with oil or fresh butter, if necessary, that with so more ease
he may introduce his hand, which must also be anointed, and having by
the signs above mentioned, received satisfaction that the child is dead,
he must do his endeavours to fetch it away as soon as he possibly can.
If the child offer the head first, he must gently put it back until he
hath liberty to introduce his hand quite into the womb; then sliding it
along, under the belly, to find the feet, let him draw it forth by
them, being very careful to keep the head from being locked into the
passage; and that it be not separated from the body; which may be
effected the more easily, because the child being very rotten and
putrefied, the operator need not be so mindful to keep the breast and
face downwards as he is in living births. But if notwithstanding all
these precautions, by reason of the child's putrefaction, the head
should be separated and left behind in the womb, it must be drawn forth
according to the directions which have been given in the third section
of this chapter. But when the head, coming first, is so far advanced
that it cannot well be put back, it is better to draw it forth so, than
to torment the woman too much by putting it back to turn it, and bring
it by the feet; but the head being a part round and slippery, it may
also happen that the operator cannot take hold of it with his fingers by
reason of its moisture, nor put them up to the side of it, because the
passage is filled with its bigness; he must, therefore, take a proper
instrument, and put it up as far as he can without violence, between the
womb and the child's head (for the child being dead before, there can be
no danger in the operation), and let him fasten it there, giving it hold
upon one of the bones of the skull, that it may not slide, and after it
is well fixed in the head, he may therewith draw it forth, keeping the
ends of the fingers of his left hand flat upon the opposite side, the
better to help to disengage it, and by wagging it a little, to conduct
it directly out of the passage, until the head be quite born; and then,
taking hold of it with his hands only, the shoulders being drawn into
the passage, and so sliding the fingers of both hands under the armpits,
the child may be quite delivered, and then the after-burden fetched, to
finish the operation, being careful not to pluck the navel-string too
hard lest it break, as often happens when it is corrupt.

If the dead child comes with the arm up to the shoulders so extremely
swelled that the woman must suffer too great violence to have it put
back, it is then (being first well assured the child is dead) best to
take it off by the shoulder joints, by twisting three or four times
about, which is very easily done by reason of the softness and
tenderness of the body. After the arm is so separated, and no longer
possesses the passage, the operator will have more room to put up his
hand into the womb, to fetch the child by the feet and bring it away.

But although the operator is sure the child is dead in the womb, yet he
must not therefore presently use instruments because they are never to
be used but when hands are not sufficient, and there is no other remedy
to prevent the woman's danger, or to bring forth the child any other
way; and the judicious operator will choose that way which is the least
hazardous, and most safe.



SECT. II.--_How a Woman must be Delivered when the Child's Feet come
   first._

There is nothing more obvious to those whose business it is to assist
labouring women, than that the several unnatural postures in which
children present themselves at the birth are the occasions of most of
the bad labours and ill accidents that happen to them in that condition.

And since midwives are often obliged, because of their unnatural
situations, to draw the children forth by the feet, I conceive it to be
most proper first to show how a child must be brought forth that
presents itself in that posture, because it will be a guide to several
of the rest.

I know indeed in this case it is the advice of several authors to change
the figure, and place the head so that it may present to the birth, and
this counsel I should be very much inclined to follow, could they but
also show how it may be done. But it will appear very difficult, if not
impossible to be performed, if we would avoid the danger that by such
violent agitations both the mother and the child must be put into, and
therefore my opinion is, that it is better to draw forth by the feet,
when it presents itself in that posture, than to venture a worse
accident by turning it.

As soon, therefore, as the waters are broken, and it is known that the
child come thus and that the womb is open enough to admit the midwife's
or operator's hand into it, or else by anointing the passage with oil or
hog's grease, to endeavour to dilate it by degrees, using her fingers to
this purpose, spreading them one from the other, after they are together
entered, and continue to do so until they be sufficiently dilated, then
taking care that her nails be well pared, no rings on her fingers and
her hands well anointed with oil or fresh butter, and the woman placed
in the manner directed in the former section, let her gently introduce
her hand into the entrance of the womb, where finding the child's feet,
let her draw it forth in the manner I shall presently direct; only let
her first see whether it presents one foot or both, and if but one foot,
she ought to consider whether it be the right foot or the left, and also
in what fashion it comes; for by that means she will soon come to know
where to find the other, which as soon as she knows and finds, let her
draw it forth with the other; but of this she must be specially careful,
viz., that the second be not the foot of another child; for if so, it
may be of the utmost consequence, for she may sooner split both mother
and child, than draw them forth. But this may be easily prevented if she
but slide the hand up by the first leg and thigh to the waist, and there
finding both thighs joined together, and descending from one and the
same body. And this is also the best means to find the other foot, when
it comes but with one.

As soon as the midwife has found both the child's feet, she may draw
them forth, and holding them together, may bring them little by little
in this manner, taking afterwards hold of the arms and thighs, as soon
as she can come at them, drawing them so till the hips come forth. While
this is doing, let her observe to wrap the parts in a single cloth, so
that her hands being always greasy slide not in the infant's body, which
is very slippery, because of the vicious humours which are all over it;
which being done, she may take hold under the hips, so as to draw it
forth to the beginning of the breast; and let her on both sides with her
hand bring down the child's hand along its body, which she may easily
find; and then let her take care that the belly and face of the child be
downwards; for if they should be upwards, there would be the same danger
of its being stopped by the chin, over the share-bone, and therefore, if
it be not so she must turn it to that posture; which may easily be done
if she takes a proper hold of the body when the breasts and arms are
forth, in the manner we have said, and draw it, turning it in proportion
on that side it most inclines to, till it be turned with the face
downwards, and so, having brought it to the shoulders, let her lose no
time, desiring the woman at the same time to bear down, that so drawing
the head at that instant may take its place, and not be stopped in the
passage, though the midwife takes all possible care to prevent it. And
when this happens, she must endeavour to draw forth the child by the
shoulders (taking care that she separate not the body from the head, as
I have known it done by the midwife), discharging it by little and
little from the bones in the passage with the fingers of each hand,
sliding them on each side opposite the other, sometimes above and
sometimes under, till the work be ended; endeavouring to dispatch it as
soon as possible, lest the child be suffocated, as it will unavoidably
be, if it remain long in that posture; and this being well and
carefully effected, she may soon after fetch away the after-birth, as I
have before directed.



SECT. III.--_How to bring away the Head of the Child, when separated
    from the Body, and left behind in the Womb._

Though the utmost care be taken in bringing away the child by the feet,
yet if it happen to be dead, it is sometimes so putrid and corrupt, that
with the least pull the head separates from the body and remains alone
in the womb, and cannot be brought away but with a manual operation and
great difficulty, it being extremely slippery, by reason of the place
where it is, and from the roundness of its figure, on which no hold can
well be taken; and so very great is the difficulty in this case that
sometimes two or three very able practitioners in midwifery have, one
after the other, left the operation unfinished, as not able to effect
it, after the utmost industry, skill and strength; so that the woman,
not being able to be delivered, perished. To prevent which fatal
accident, let the following operation be observed.

When the infant's head separates from the body, and is left alone
behind, whether owing to putrefaction or otherwise, let the operator
immediately, without any delay, while the womb is yet open, direct up
his right hand to the mouth of the head (for no other hole can there be
had), and having found it let him put one or two of his fingers into it,
and the thumb under its chin; then let him draw it little by little,
holding it by the jaws; but if that fails, as sometimes it will when
putrefied, then let him pull off the right hand and slide up his left,
with which he must support the head, and with the right hand let him
take a narrow instrument called a _crochet_, but let it be strong and
with a single branch, which he must guide along the inside of his hand,
with the point of it towards it, for fear of hurting the womb; and
having thus introduced it, let him turn it towards the head to strike
either in an eyehole, or the hole of the ear, or behind the head, or
else between the sutures, as he finds it most convenient and easy; and
then draw forth the head so fastened with the said instrument, still
helping to conduct it with his left hand; but when he hath brought it
near the passage, being strongly fastened to the instrument, let him
remember to draw forth his hand, that the passage not being filled with
it, may be larger and easier, keeping still a finger or two on the side
of the head, the better to disengage it.

There is also another method, with more ease and less hardship than the
former; let the operator take a soft fillet or linen slip, of about four
fingers' breadth, and the length of three quarters of an ell or
thereabouts, taking the two ends with the left hand, and the middle with
the right, and let him so put it up with his right, as that it may be
beyond the head, to embrace it as a sling does a stone, and afterwards
draw forth the fillet by the two ends together; it will thus be easily
drawn forth, the fillet not hindering the least passage, because it
takes up little or no space.

When the head is fetched out of the womb care must be taken that not the
least part of it be left behind, and likewise to cleanse the womb of the
after-burden, if yet remaining. If the burden be wholly separated from
the side of the womb, that ought to be first brought away, because it
may also hinder the taking hold of the head. But if it still adheres to
the womb, it must not be meddled with till the head be brought away; for
if one should endeavour to separate it from the womb, it might then
cause a flooding, which would be augmented by the violence of the
operation, the vessels to which it is joined remaining for the most part
open as long as the womb is distended, which the head causeth while it
is retained in it, and cannot be closed until this strange body be
voided, and this it doth by contracting and compressing itself
together, as has been more fully before explained. Besides, the
after-birth remaining thus cleaving to the womb during the operation,
prevents it from receiving easily either bruise or hurt.



SECT. IV.--_How to deliver a Woman when the child's head is presented to
    the birth._

Though some may think it a natural labour when the child's head come
first, yet, if the child's head present not the right way, even that is
an unnatural labour; and therefore, though the head comes first, yet if
it be the side of the head instead of the crown, it is very dangerous
both to the mother and the child, for the child's neck would be broken,
if born in that manner, and by how much the mother's pains continue to
bear the child, which is impossible unless the head be rightly placed,
the more the passages are stopped. Therefore, as soon as the position of
the child is known, the woman must be laid with all speed, lest the
child should advance further than this vicious posture, and thereby
render it more difficult to thrust it back, which must be done, in order
to place the head right in the passage, as it ought to be.

To this purpose, therefore, place the woman so that her buttocks may be
a little higher than her head and shoulders, causing her to lean a
little to the opposite side to the child's ill posture; then let the
operator slide up his hand, well anointed with oil, by the side of the
child's head; to bring it right gently, with his fingers between the
head and the womb; but if the head be so engaged that it cannot be done
that way, he must then put up his hand to the shoulders, that by so
thrusting them back a little into the womb, sometimes on the one side,
and sometimes on the other, he may, little by little, give a natural
position. I confess it would be better if the operator could put back
the child by its shoulders with both hands, but the head takes up so
much room, that he will find much ado to put up one, with which he must
perform this operation, and, with the help of the finger-ends of the
other hand put forward the child's birth as in natural labour.

Some children present their face first, having their hands turned back,
in which posture it is extremely difficult for a child to be born; and
if it continues so long, the face will be swelled and become black and
blue, so that it will at first appear monstrous, which is occasioned as
well by the compression of it in that place, as by the midwife's fingers
in handling it, in order to place it in a better posture. But this
blackness will wear away in three or four days' time, by anointing it
often with oil of sweet almonds. To deliver the birth, the same
operation must be used as in the former, when the child comes first with
the side of the head; only let the midwife or operator work very gently
to avoid as much as possible the bruising the face.



SECT. V.--_How to Deliver a Woman when the Child presents one or both
    Hands together with the Head._

Sometimes the infant will present some other part together with its
head; which if it does, it is usually with one or both of its hands; and
this hinders the birth, because the hands take up part of that passage
which is little enough for the head alone; besides that, when this
happens, they generally cause the head to lean on one side; and
therefore this position may be well styled unnatural. When the child
presents thus, the first thing to be done after it is perceived, must
be, to prevent it from coming down more, or engaging further in the
passage; and therefore, the operator having placed the woman on the bed,
with her head lower than her buttocks, must guide and put back the
infant's hand with his own as much as may be, or both of them, if they
both come down, to give way to the child's head; and this being done,
if the head be on one side, it must be brought into its natural posture
in the middle of the passage, that it may come in a straight line, and
then proceed as directed in the foregoing section.



SECT. VI.--_How a Woman ought to be delivered, when the Hands and Feet
    of the Infant come together._

There are none but will readily grant, that when the hands and feet of
an infant present together, the labour must be unnatural, because it is
impossible a child should be born in that manner. In this case,
therefore, when the midwife guides her hand towards the orifice of the
womb she will perceive only many fingers close together, and if it be
not sufficiently dilated, it will be a good while before the hands and
feet will be exactly distinguished; for they are sometimes so shut and
pressed together, that they seem to be all of one and the same shape,
but where the womb is open enough to introduce the hand into it, she
will easily know which are the hands and which are the feet; and having
taken particular notice thereof, let her slide up her hand and presently
direct it towards the infant's breast, which she will find very near,
and then let her gently thrust back the body towards the bottom of the
womb, leaving the feet in the same place where she found them. And then,
having placed the woman in a convenient posture, that is to say, her
buttocks a little raised above her breast (and which situation ought
also to be observed when the child is to be put back into the womb), let
the midwife afterwards take hold of the child by the feet, and draw it
forth, as is directed in the second section.

This labour, though somewhat troublesome, yet is much better than when
the child presents only its hands; for then the child must be quite
turned about before it can be drawn forth; but in this they are ready,
presenting themselves, and there is little to do, but to lift and thrust
back the upper part of the body, which is almost done of itself, by
drawing it by the feet alone.

I confess there are many authors that have written of labours, who would
have all wrong births reduced to a natural figure, which is, to turn it
that it may come with the head first. But those that have written thus,
are such as never understood the practical part, for if they had the
least experience therein, they would know that it is impossible; at
least, if it were to be done, that violence must necessarily be used in
doing it, that would probably be the death both of mother and child in
the operation. I would, therefore, lay down as a general rule, that
whenever a child presents itself wrong to the birth, in what posture so
ever, from the shoulders to the feet, it is the way, and soonest done,
to draw it out by the feet; and that it is better to search for them, if
they do not present themselves, than to try and put them in their
natural posture, and place the head foremost; for the great endeavours
necessary to be used in turning the child in the womb, do so much weaken
both the mother and the child, that there remains not afterwards
strength enough to commit the operation to the work of nature; for,
usually, the woman has no more throes or pains fit for labour after she
has been so wrought upon; for which reason it would be difficult and
tedious at best; and the child, by such an operation made very weak,
would be in extreme danger of perishing before it could be born. It is,
therefore, much better in these cases to bring it away immediately by
the feet, searching for them as I have already directed, when they do
not present themselves; by which the mother will be prevented a tedious
labour, and the child be often brought alive into the world, who
otherwise could hardly escape death.



SECT. VII.--_How a Woman should be delivered that has twins, which
    present themselves in different postures._

We have already spoken something of the birth of twins in the chapter of
natural labour, for it is not an unnatural labour barely to have twins,
provided they come in the right position to the birth. But when they
present themselves in different postures, they come properly under the
denomination of unnatural labours; and if when one child presents itself
in a wrong figure, it makes the labour dangerous and unnatural, it must
needs make it much more so when there are several, and render it not
only more painful to the mother and children, but to the operator also;
for they often trouble each other and hinder both their births. Besides
which the womb is so filled with them, that the operator can hardly
introduce his hand without much violence, which he must do, if they are
to be turned or thrust back, to give them a better position.

When a woman is pregnant with two children, they rarely present to the
birth together, the one being generally more forward than the other; and
that is the reason that but one is felt, and that many times the midwife
knows not that there are twins until the first is born, and that she is
going to fetch away the afterbirth. In the first chapter, wherein I
treated of natural labour, I have showed how a woman should be delivered
of twins, presenting themselves both right; and before I close the
chapter of unnatural labour, it only remains that I show what ought to
be done when they either both come wrong or one of them only, as for the
most part it happens; the first generally coming right, and the second
with the feet forward, or in some worse posture. In such a case, the
birth of the first must be hastened as much as possible and to make way
for the second, which is best brought away by the feet, without
endeavouring to place it right, because it has been, as well as the
mother, already tired and weakened by the birth of the first, and there
would be greater danger to its death, than likelihood of its coming out
of the womb that way.

But if, when the first is born naturally, the second should likewise
offer its head to the birth, it would then be best to leave nature to
finish what she has so well begun, and if nature should be too slow in
her work, some of those things mentioned in the fourth chapter to
accelerate the birth, may be properly enough applied, and if, after
that, the second birth should be delayed, let a manual operation be
delayed no longer, but the woman being properly placed, as has been
before directed, let the operator direct his hand gently into the womb
to find the feet, and so draw forth the second child, which will be the
more easily effected, because there is a way made sufficiently by the
birth of the first; and if the waters of the second child be not broke,
as it often happens, yet, intending to bring it by its feet, he need not
scruple to break the membranes with his fingers; for though, when the
birth of a child is left to the operation of nature, it is necessary
that the waters should break of themselves, yet when the child is
brought out of the womb by art, there is no danger in breaking them,
nay, on the contrary it becomes necessary; for without the waters are
broken, it will be almost impossible to turn the child.

But herein principally lies the care of the operator, that he be not
deceived, when either the hands or feet of both children offer
themselves together to the birth; in this case he ought well to consider
the operation, of whether they be not joined together, or any way
monstrous, and which part belongs to one child and which to the other;
so that they may be fetched one after the other, and not both together,
as may be, if it were not duly considered, taking the right foot of one
and the left of the other, and so drawing them together, as if they
both belonged to one body, because there is a left and a right, by which
means it would be impossible to deliver them. But a skilful operator
will easily prevent this, if, after having found two or three of several
children presenting together in the passage, and taking aside two of the
forwardest, a right and a left, and sliding his arm along the legs and
thighs up to the wrist, if forward, or to the buttocks, if backwards, he
finds they both belong to one body; of which being thus assured, he may
begin to draw forth the nearest, without regarding which is the
strongest or weakest, bigger or less, living or dead, having first put
aside that part of the other child which offers to have the more way,
and so dispatch the first as soon as may be, observing the same rules as
if there were but one, that is keeping the breast and face downwards,
with every circumstance directed in that section where the child comes
with its feet first, and not fetch the burden till the second child is
born. And therefore, when the operator hath drawn forth one child, he
must separate it from the burden, having tied and cut the navel-string,
and then fetch the other by the feet in the same manner, and afterwards
bring away the after-burden with the two strings as hath been before
showed. If the children present any other part but the feet, the
operator may follow the same method as directed in the foregoing
section, where the several unnatural positions are fully treated of.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER VII

     _Directions for Child-bearing Women in their Lying-in._


SECTION I.--_How a Woman newly Delivered ought to be ordered._

As soon as she is laid in her bed, let her be placed in it conveniently
for ease and rest, which she stands in great need of to recover herself
of the great fatigue she underwent during her travail, and that she may
lie the more easily let her hands and body be a little raised, that she
may breathe more freely, and cleanse the better, especially of that
blood which then comes away, that so it may not clot, which being
retained causeth great pain.

Having thus placed her in bed, let her take a draught of burnt white
wine, having a drachm of spermaceti melted therein. The best vervain is
also singularly good for a woman in this condition, boiling it in what
she either eats or drinks, fortifying the womb so exceedingly that it
will do it more good in two days, than any other thing does in double
that time, having no offensive taste. And this is no more than what she
stands in need of; for her lower parts being greatly distended until the
birth of the infant, it is good to endeavour the prevention of an
inflammation there. Let there also be outwardly applied, all over the
bottom of her belly and privities, the following anodyne and
cataplasm:--Take two ounces of oil of sweet almonds, and two or three
new laid eggs, yolks and whites, stirring them together in an earthen
pipkin over hot embers till they come to the consistence of a poultice;
which being spread upon a cloth, must be applied to those parts
indifferently warm, having first taken away the closures (which were put
to her presently after her delivery), and likewise such clots of blood
as were then left. Let this lie on for five or six hours, and then renew
it again when you see cause.

Great care ought to be taken at first, that if her body be very weak,
she be not kept too hot, for extremity of heat weakens nature and
dissolves the strength; and whether she be weak or strong, be sure that
no cold air comes near her at first; for cold is an enemy to the
spermatic parts; if it get into the womb it increases the after pains,
causes swelling in the womb and hurts the nerves. As to her diet, let it
be hot, and let her eat but little at a time. Let her avoid the light
for the first three days, and longer if she be weak, for her labour
weakens her eyes exceedingly, by a harmony between the womb and them.
Let her also avoid great noise, sadness and trouble of mind.

If the womb be foul, which may easily be perceived by the impurity of
the blood (which will then easily come away in clots or stinking, or if
you suspect any of the after-burden to be left behind, which may
sometimes happen), make her drink a feverfew, mugwort, pennyroyal and
mother of thyme, boiled in white wine and sweetened with sugar.

Panado and new laid eggs are the best meat for her at first, of which
she may eat often, but not too much at a time. And let her nurse use
cinnamon in all her meats and drinks, for it generally strengthens the
womb.

Let her stir as little as may be until after the fifth, sixth, or
seventh day after her delivery, if she be weak; and let her talk as
little as possible, for that weakens her very much.

If she goes not well to stool, give a clyster made only of the
decoction of mallows and a little brown sugar.

When she hath lain in a week or more, let her use such things as close
the womb, of which knot-grass and comfrey are very good, and to them you
may add a little polypodium, for it will do her good, both leaves and
root being bruised.



SECT. II.--_How to remedy those Accidents which a Lying-in Woman is
    subject to._

I. The first common and usual accident that troubles women in their
lying-in is after-pains. They proceed from cold and wind contained in
the bowels, with which they are easily filled after labour, because then
they have more room to dilate than when the child was in the womb, by
which they were compressed; and also, because nourishment and matter,
contained as well in them as in the stomach, have been so confusedly
agitated from side to side during the pains of labour, by the throes
which always must compress the belly, that they could not be well
digested, whence the wind is afterwards generated and, by consequence,
the gripes which the woman feels running into her belly from side to
side, according as the wind moves more or less, and sometimes likewise
from the womb, because of the compression and commotion which the
bowels make. This being generally the case, let us now apply a suitable
remedy.

1. Boil an egg soft, and pour out the yolk of it, with which mix a
spoonful of cinnamon water, and let her drink it; and if you mix in it
two grains of ambergris, it will be better; and yet vervain taken in
anything she drinks, will be as effectual as the other.

2. Give a lying-in woman, immediately after delivery, oil of sweet
almonds and syrup of maiden-hair mixed together. Some prefer oil of
walnuts, provided it be made of nuts that are very good; but it tastes
worse than the other at best. This will lenify the inside of the
intestines by its unctuousness, and by that means bring away that which
is contained in them more easily.

3. Take and boil onions well in water, then stamp them with oil of
cinnamon, spread them on a cloth, and apply them to the region of the
womb.

4. Let her be careful to keep her belly warm, and not to drink what is
too cold; and if the pain prove violent, hot cloths from time to time
must be laid on her belly, or a pancake fried in walnut oil may be
applied to it, without swathing her belly too strait. And for the better
evacuating the wind out of the intestines, give her a clyster, which
may be repeated as often as necessity requires.

5. Take bay-berries, beat them to a powder, put the powder upon a
chafing-dish of coals, and let her receive the smoke of them up her
privities.

6. Take tar and bear's grease, of each an equal quantity, boil them
together, and whilst it is boiling, add a little pigeon's dung to it.
Spread some of this upon a linen cloth, and apply it to the veins of the
back of her that is troubled with afterpains, and it will give her
speedy ease.

Lastly, let her take half a drachm of bay-berries beaten into a powder,
in a drachm of muscadel or teat.

II. Another accident to which women in child-bed are subject is
haemorrhoids or piles, occasioned through the great straining in
bringing the child into the world. To cure this,

1. Let her be let blood in the saphoena vein.

2. Let her use polypodium in her meat, and drink, bruised and boiled.

3. Take an onion, and having made a hole in the middle, of it, fill it
full of oil, roast it and having bruised it all together, apply it to
the fundament.

4. Take a dozen of snails without shells, if you can get them, or else
so many shell snails, and pull them out, and having bruised them with a
little oil, apply them warm as before.

5. If she go not well to stool, let her take an ounce of cassia fistula
drawn at night, going to bed; she needs no change of diet after.

III. Retention of the menses is another accident happening to women in
child-bed, and which is of so dangerous a consequence, that, if not
timely remedied, it proves mortal. When this happens,

1. Let the woman take such medicines as strongly provoke the terms, such
as dittany, betony, pennyroyal, feverfew, centaury, juniper-berries,
peony roots.

2. Let her take two or three spoonfuls of briony water each morning.

3. Gentian roots beaten into a powder, and a drachm of it taken every
morning in wine, are an extraordinary remedy.

4. The roots of birthwort, either long or round, so used and taken as
the former, are very good.

5. Take twelve peony seeds, and beat them into a very fine powder, and
let her drink them in a draught of hot cardus posset, and let her sweat
after. And if the last medicine do not bring them down the first time
she takes it, let her take as much more three hours after, and it seldom
fails.

IV. Overflowing of the menses is another accident incidental to
child-bed women. For which,

1. Take shepherd's purse, either boiled in any convenient liquor, or
dried and beaten into a powder, and it will be an admirable remedy to
stop them, this being especially appropriated to the privities.

2. The flower and leaves of brambles or either of them, being dried and
beaten into a powder, and a drachm of them taken every morning in a
spoonful of red wine, or in a decoction of leaves of the same (which,
perhaps, is much better), is an admirable remedy for the immoderate
flowing of the term in women.

V. Excoriations, bruises, and rents in the lower part of the womb are
often occasioned by the violent distention and separation of the
caruncles in a woman's labour. For the healing whereof,

As soon as the woman is laid, if there be only simple contusions and
excoriations, then let the anodyne cataplasm, formerly directed, be
applied to the lower parts to ease the pain, made of the yolks and
whites of new laid eggs, and oil of roses, boiled a little over warm
embers, continually stirring it until it be mixed, and then spread on a
fine cloth; it must be applied very warm to the bearing place for five
or six hours, and when it is taken away, lay some fine rags, dipped in
oil of St. John's wort twice or thrice a day; also foment the parts with
barley water and honey of roses, to cleanse them from the excrements
which pass. When the woman makes water, let them be defended with fine
rags, and thereby hinder the urine from causing smart or pain.

VI. The curding and clotting of the milk is another accident that
happens to women in child-bed, for in the beginning of child-bed, the
woman's milk is not purified because of the great commotions her body
suffered during her labour, which affected all the parts, and it is then
affected with many humours. Now this clotting of the milk does, for the
most part, proceed from the breasts not being fully drawn, and that,
either because she has too much milk, and that the infant is too small
and weak to suck it all, or because she doth not desire to be a nurse,
for the milk in those cases remaining in the breasts after concoction,
without being drawn, loses its sweetness and the balsamic qualities it
had, and by reason of the heat it requires, and the too long stay it
makes there, is sours, curds and clots, in like manner as we see rennet
put into ordinary milk to turn it into curds. The curding of the milk
may also be caused by having taken a great cold, and not keeping the
breasts well covered.

But from what cause so ever this curding of the milk proceeds, the most
certain remedy is, to draw the breasts until it is emitted and dried.
But in regard that the infant by reason of weakness, cannot draw
strength enough, the woman being hard marked when her milk is curded, it
will be most proper to get another woman to draw her breasts until the
milk comes freely, and then she may give her child suck. And that she
may not afterwards be troubled with a surplus of milk, she must eat such
diet as give but little nourishment, and keep her body open.

But if the case be such that the woman neither can nor will be a nurse,
it is necessary to apply other remedies for the curing of this
distemper; for then it will be best not to draw the breasts, for that
will be the way to bring more milk into them. For which purpose it will
be necessary to empty the body by bleeding the arms, besides which, let
the humours be drawn down by strong clysters and bleeding at the foot;
nor will it be amiss to purge gently, and to digest, dissolve and
dissipate the curded milk, four brans dissolved in a decoction of sage,
milk, smallage and fennel, mixing with it oil of camomile, with which
oil let the breasts be well anointed. The following liniment is also
good to scatter and dissipate the milk.



_A Liniment to Scatter and Dissipate the Milk._

That the milk flowing back to the breast may without offence be
dissipated, you must use this ointment:--"Take pure wax, two ounces,
linseed, half a pound; when the wax is melted, let the liniment be made,
wherein linen cloths must be clipped, and, according to their largeness,
be laid upon the breasts; and when it shall be dispersed, and pains no
more, let other linen cloths be laid in the distilled water of acorns,
and put upon them.

_Note._--That the cloths dipped into distilled water of acorns must be
used only by those who cannot nurse their own children; but if a
swelling in the breast of her who gives such do arise, from abundance of
milk, threatens an inflammation, let her use the former ointment, but
abstain from using the distilled water of acorns.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER VIII

     _Directions for the Nurses, in ordering Newly-born Children._


When the child's navel-string hath been cut according to the rules
prescribed, let the midwife presently cleanse it from the excrements and
filth it brings into the world with it; of which some are within the
body, as the urine in the bladder, and the excrements found in the guts;
and the others without, which are thick, whitish and clammy, proceeding
from the sliminess of the waters. There are sometimes children covered
all over with this, that one would think they were rubbed over with soft
cheese, and some women are of so easy a belief, that they really think
it so, because they have eaten some while they were with child. From
these excrements let the child be cleansed with wine and water a little
warmed, washing every part therewith, but chiefly the head because of
the hair, also the folds of the groin, and the cods or privities; which
parts must be gently cleansed with a linen rag, or a soft sponge dipped
in lukewarm wine. If this clammy or viscous excrement stick so close
that it will not easily be washed off from those places, it may be
fetched off with oil of sweet almond, or a little fresh butter melted
with wine, and afterwards well dried off; also make tents of fine rags,
and wetting them in this liquor, clear the ears and nostrils; but for
the eyes, wipe them only with a dry, soft rag, not dipping it in the
wine, lest it should make them smart.

The child being washed, and cleansed from the native blood and
impurities which attend it into the world, it must in the next place be
searched to see whether all things be right about it, and that there is
no fault nor dislocation; whether its nose be straight, or its tongue
tied, or whether there be any bruise or tumour of the head; or whether
the mold be not over shot; also whether the scrotum (if it be a male) be
not blown up and swelled, and, in short, whether it has suffered any
violence by its birth, in any part of its body, and whether all the
parts be well and duly shaped; that suitable remedies may be applied if
anything be found not right. Nor is it enough to see that all be right
without, and that the outside of the body be cleansed, but she must also
observe whether it dischargeth the excrements contained within, and
whether the passage be open; for some have been born without having been
perforated. Therefore, let her examine whether the conduits of the urine
and stool be clear, for want of which some have died, not being able to
void their excrements, because timely care was not taken at first. As to
the urine all children, as well males as females, do make water as soon
as they are born, if they can, especially if they feel the heat of the
fire, and also sometimes void the excrements, but not so soon as the
urine. If the infant does not ordure the first day, then put into its
fundament a small suppository, to stir it up to be discharged, that it
may not cause painful gripes, by remaining so long in the belly. A sugar
almond may be proper for this purpose, anointed all over with a little
boiled honey; or else a small piece of castile-soap rubbed over with
fresh butter; also give the child for this purpose a little syrup of
roses or violets at the mouth, mixed with some oil of sweet almonds,
drawn without a fire, anointing the belly also, with the same oil or
fresh butter.

The midwife having thus washed and cleansed the child, according to the
before mentioned directions, let her begin to swaddle it in swathing
clothes, and when she dresses the head, let her put small rags behind
the ears, to dry up the filth which usually engenders there, and so let
her do also in the folds of the armpits and groins, and so swathe it;
then wrap it up warm in a bed with blankets, which there is scarcely any
woman so ignorant but knows well enough how to do; only let me give
them this caution, that they swathe not the child too tightly in its
blankets, especially about the breast and stomach, that it may breathe
the more freely, and not be forced to vomit up the milk it sucks,
because the stomach cannot be sufficiently distended to contain it;
therefore let its arms and legs be wrapped in its bed, stretched and
straight and swathed to keep them so, viz., the arms along its sides,
and its legs equally both together with a little of the bed between
them, that they may not be galled by rubbing each other; then let the
head be kept steady and straight, with a stay fastened each side of the
blanket, and then wrap the child up in a mantle and blankets to keep it
warm. Let none think this swathing of the infant is needless to set
down, for it is necessary it should be thus swaddled, to give its little
body a straight figure, which is most proper and decent for a man, and
to accustom him to keep upon his feet, who otherwise would go upon all
fours, as most animals do.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER IX


SECTION I.--_Of Gripes and Pains in the, Bellies of Young Children._

This I mention first, as it is often the first and most common distemper
which happens to little infants, after their birth; many children being
so troubled therewith, that it causes them to cry day and night and at
last die of it. The cause of it for the most part comes from the sudden
change of nourishment, for having always received it from the umbilical
vessel whilst in the mother's womb, they come on a sudden not only to
change the manner of receiving it, but the nature and quality of what
they received, as soon as they are born; for instead of purified blood
only, which was conveyed to them by means of the umbilical vein, they
are now obliged to be nourished by their mother's milk, which they suck
with their mouths, and from which are engendered many excrements,
causing gripes and pains; and not only because it is not so pure as the
blood with which it was nourished in the womb, but because the stomach
and the intestines cannot make a good digestion, being unaccustomed to
it. It is sometimes caused also by a rough phlegm, and sometimes by
worms; for physicians affirm that worms have been bred in children even
in their mother's belly.

_Cure_. The remedy must be suited to the cause. If it proceed from the
too sudden change of nourishment, the remedy must be to forbear giving
the child suck for some days, lest the milk be mixed with phlegm, which
is then in the stomach corrupt; and at first it must suck but little,
until it is accustomed to digest it. If it be the excrements in the
intestines, which by their long stay increase their pains, give them at
the month a little oil of sweet almonds and syrup of roses; if it be
worms, lay a cloth dipped in oil of wormwood mixed with ox-gall, upon
the belly, or a small cataplasm, mixed with the powder of rue, wormwood,
coloquintida, aloes, and the seeds of citron incorporated with ox-gall
and the powder of lupines. Or give it oil of sweet almonds and syrup of
roses; if it be worms, lay a cloth, dipped in oil of wormwood mixed with
ox-gall, upon the belly, or a small cataplasm mixed with the powder of
rue, wormwood, coloquintida, aloes, and the seeds of citron incorporated
with ox-gall and the powder of lupines. Or give it oil of sweet almonds
with sugar-candy, and a scruple of aniseed; it purgeth new-born babes
from green cholera and stinking phlegm, and, if it be given with
sugar-pap, it allays the griping pains of the belly. Also anoint the
belly with oil of dill, or lay pelitory stamped with oil of camomile to
the belly.



SECT. II.--_Of Weakness In Newly-born Infants._

Weakness is an accident that many children bring into the world along
with them, and is often occasioned by the labour of the mother; by the
violence and length whereof they suffer so much, that they are born with
great weakness, and many times it is difficult to know whether they are
alive or dead, their body appearing so senseless, and their face so blue
and livid, that they seem to be quite choked; and even after some hours,
then-showing any signs of life is attended with weakness, that it looks
like a return from death, and that they are still in a dying condition.

_Cure_. Lay the infant speedily in a warm blanket, and carry it to the
fire, and then let the midwife take a little wine in her mouth and spout
it into its mouth, repeating it often, if there be occasion. Let her
apply linen dipped in urine to the breast and belly, and let the face be
uncovered, that it may breathe the more freely; also, let the midwife
keep its mouth a little open, cleanse the nostrils with small linen
tents[11] dipt in white wine, that so it may receive the smell of it;
and let her chafe every part of its body well with warm cloths, to bring
back its blood and spirits, which being retired inwards through
weakness, often puts him in danger of being choked. By the application
of these means, the infant will gradually recover strength, and begin to
stir its limbs by degrees, and at length to cry; and though it be but
weakly at first, yet afterwards, as it breathes more freely, its cry
will become more strong.



SECT. III.--_Of the Fundament being closed up in a newly-born Infant._

Another defect that new-born infants are liable to is, to have their
fundaments closed up, by which they can neither evacuate the new
excrements engendered by the milk they suck, nor that which was amassed
in their intestines before birth, which is certainly mortal without a
speedy remedy. There have been some female children who have their
fundaments quite closed, and yet have voided the excrements of the guts
by an orifice which nature, to supply the defect, had made within the
neck of the womb.

_Cure_. Here we must take notice, that the fundament is closed two ways;
either by a single skin, through which one may discover some black and
blue marks, proceeding from the excrements retained, which, if one touch
with the finger, there is a softness felt within, and thereabout it
ought to be pierced; or else it is quite stopped by a thick, fleshy
substance, in such sort that there appears nothing without, by which its
true situation may be known. When there is nothing but the single skin
which makes the closure, the operation is very easy, and the children
may do very well; for then an aperture or opening may be made with a
small incision-knife, cross-ways, that it may the better receive a round
form, and that the place may not afterwards grow together, taking care
not to prejudice the sphincter or muscle of the rectum. The incision
being thus made, the excrements will certainly have issue. But if, by
reason of their long stay in the belly, they become so dry that the
infant cannot void them, then let a clyster be given to moisten and
bring them away; afterwards put a linen tent into the new-made
fundament, which at first had best be anointed with honey of roses, and
towards the end, with a drying, cicatrizing ointment, such as unguentum
album or ponphilex, observing to cleanse the infant of its excrement,
and dry it again as soon and as often as it evacuates them, that so the
aperture may be prevented from turning into a malignant ulcer.

But if the fundament be stopped up in such a manner, that neither mark
nor appearance of it can be seen or felt, then the operation is much
more difficult, and, even when it is done, the danger is much greater
that the infant will not survive it. Then, if it be a female, and it
sends forth its excrements by the way I mentioned before, it is better
not to meddle than, by endeavouring to remedy an inconvenience, run an
extreme hazard of the infant's death. But when there is no vent for the
excrements, without which death is unavoidable, then the operation is
justifiable.

_Operation_. Let the operator, with a small incision-knife that hath but
one edge, enter into the void place, and turning the back of it upwards,
within half a finger's breadth of the child's rump, which is the place
where he will certainly find the intestines, let him thrust it forward,
that it may be open enough to give free vent to matter there contained,
being especially careful of the sphincter; after which, let the wound
be dressed according to the method directed.



SECT. IV.--_Of the Thrush, or Ulcers In the Mouth of the Infant._

The thrush is a distemper that children are very subject to, and it
arises from bad milk, or from foul humour in the stomach; for sometimes,
though there be no ill humour in the milk itself, yet it may corrupt the
child's stomach because of its weakness or some other indisposition; in
which, acquiring an acrimony, instead of being well digested, there
arise from it thrice biting vapours, which forming a thick viscosity, do
thereby produce this distemper.

_Cure_. It is often difficult, as physicians tell us, because it is
seated in hot and moist places, where the putrefaction is easily
augmented; and because the remedies applied cannot lodge there, being
soon washed with spittle. But if it arises from too hot quality in the
nurse's milk, care must be taken to temper and cool, prescribing her
cool diet, bleeding and purging her also, if there be occasion.

Take lentils, husked, powder them, and lay a little of them upon the
child's gums. Or take bdellium flowers, half an ounce, and with oil of
roses make a liniment. Also wash the child's mouth with barley and
plantain-water, and honey of roses, mixing with them a little verjuice
of lemons, as well to loosen and cleanse the vicious humours which
cleave to the inside of the infant's mouth, as to cool those parts which
are already over-heated. It may be done by means of a small fine rag,
fastened to the end of a little stick, and dipped therein, wherewith the
ulcers may be gently rubbed, being careful not to put the child in too
much pain, lest an inflammation make the distemper worse. The child's
body must also be kept open, that the humours being carried to the lower
parts, the vapours may not ascend, as is usual for them to do when the
body is costive, and the excrements too long retained.

If the ulcers appear malignant, let such remedies be used as do their
work speedily, that the evil qualities that cause them, being thereby
instantly corrected, their malignity may be prevented; and in this case,
touch the ulcers with plantain water, sharpened with spirits of vitriol;
for the remedy must be made sharp, according to the malignity of the
distemper. It will be necessary to purge these ill humours out of the
whole habit of the child, by giving half an ounce of succory and
rhubarb.



SECT. V.--_Of Pains in the Ears, Inflammation, Moisture, etc._

The brain in infants is very moist, and hath many excrements which
nature cannot send out at the proper passages; they get often to the
ears, and there cause pains, flux of blood, with inflammation and matter
with pain; this in children is hard to be known as they have no other
way to make it known but by constant crying; you will perceive them
ready to feel their ears themselves, but will not let others touch them,
if they can prevent; and sometimes you may discern the parts about the
ears to be very red.

These pains, if let alone, are of dangerous consequences, because they
may bring forth watchings and epilepsy; for the moisture breeds worms
there, and fouls the spongy bones, and by degrees causes incurable
deafness.

_Cure_. Allay the pain with all convenient speed, but have a care of
using strong remedies. Therefore, only use warm milk about the ears,
with the decoction of poppy tops, or oil of violets; to take away the
moisture, use honey of roses, and let aqua mollis be dropped into the
ears; or take virgin honey, half an ounce; red wines two ounces; alum,
saffron, saltpetre, each a drachm, mix them at the fire; or drop in
hemp seed oil with a little wine.



SECT. VI.--_Of Redness and Inflammation of the Buttocks, Groin and the
    Thighs of a Young Child._

If there be no great care taken to change and wash the child's bed as
soon as it is fouled with the excrements, and to keep the child very
clean, the acrimony will be sure to cause redness, and beget a smarting
in the buttocks, groin and thighs of the child, which, by reason of the
pain, will afterwards be subject to inflammations, which follow the
sooner, through the delicacy and tenderness of their skin, from which
the outward skin of the body is in a short time separated and worn away.

_Cure_. First, keep the child cleanly, and secondly, take off the
sharpness of its urine. As to keeping it cleanly, she must be a sorry
nurse who needs to be taught how to do it; for if she lets it but have
dry, warm and clean beds and cloths, as often and as soon as it has
fouled and wet them, either by its urine or its excrements, it will be
sufficient. And as to taking off the sharpness of the child's urine,
that must be done by the nurse's taking a cool diet, that her milk may
have the same quality; and, therefore, she ought to abstain from all
things that may tend to heat it.

But besides these, cooling and drying remedies are requisite to be
applied to the inflamed parts; therefore let the parts be bathed in
plantain-water, with a fourth of lime water added to it, each time the
child's excrements are wiped off; and if the pain be very great, let it
only be fomented with lukewarm milk. The powder of a post to dry it, or
a little mill-dust strewed upon the parts affected, may be proper
enough, and is used by many women. Also, unguentum album, or
diapompholigos, spread upon a small piece of leather in form of a
plaster, will not be amiss.

But the chief thing must be, the nurse's taking great care to wrap the
inflamed parts with fine rags when she opens the child, that these parts
may not gather and be pained by rubbing together.



SECT. VII.--_Of Vomiting in Young Children._

Vomiting in young children proceeds sometimes from too much milk, and
sometimes from bad milk, and as often from a moist, loose stomach; for
as dryness retains so looseness lets go. This is, for the most part,
without danger in children; for they that vomit from their birth are
the lustiest; for the stomach not being used to meat, and milk being
taken too much, crudities are easily bred, or the milk is corrupted; and
it is better to vomit these up than to keep them in; but if vomiting
last long, it will cause an atrophy or consumption, for want of
nourishment.

_Cure_. If this be from too much milk, that which is emitted is yellow
and green, or otherwise ill-coloured and stinking; in this case, mend
the milk, as has been shown before; cleanse the child with honey of
roses, and strengthen its stomach with syrup of milk and quinces, made
into an electuary. If the humours be hot and sharp, give the syrup of
pomegranates, currants and coral, and apply to the belly the plaster of
bread, the stomach cerate, or bread dipped in hot wine; or take oil of
mastich, quinces, mint, wormwood, each half an ounce; of nutmegs by
expression, half a drachm; chemical oil of mint, three drops. Coral hath
an occult property to prevent vomiting, and is therefore hung about the
neck.



SECT. VIII--_Of Breeding Teeth in Young Children._

This is a very great and yet necessary evil in all children, having
variety of symptoms joined with it. They begin to come forth, not all
at once, but one after the other, about the sixth or seventh month; the
fore-teeth coming first, then the eye-teeth, and last of all the
grinders. The eye-teeth cause more pain to the child than any of the
rest, because they have a deep root, and a small nerve which has
communication with that which makes the eye move.

[Illustration]

In the breeding of the teeth, first they feel an itching in their gums,
then they are pierced as with a needle, and pricked by the sharp bones,
whence proceed great pains, watching, inflammation of the gums, fever,
looseness and convulsions, especially when they breed their eye-teeth.

The signs when children breed their eye-teeth are these:

1. It is known by the time, which is usually about the seventh month.

2. Their gums are swelled, and they feel a great heat there with an
itching, which makes them put their fingers into their mouths to rub
them; a moisture also distils from the gums into the mouth, because of
the pain they feel there.

3. They hold the nipple faster than before.

4. The gums are white when the teeth begin to come, and the nurse, in
giving them suck, finds the mouth hotter, and that they are much
changed, crying every moment, and cannot sleep, or but very little at a
time.

The fever that follows breeding of teeth comes from choleric humours,
inflamed by watching, pain and heat. And the longer teeth are breeding,
the more dangerous it is; so that many in the breeding of them, die of
fevers and convulsions.

_Cure_. Two things are to be regarded:--one is, to preserve the child
from the evil accidents that may happen to it by reason of the great
pain; the other, to assist as much as may be, the cutting of the teeth,
when they can hardly cut the gums themselves.

For the first of these, viz., the preventing of those accidents to the
child, the nurse ought to take great care to keep a good diet, and to
use all things that may cool and temper her milk, that so a fever may
not follow the pain of the teeth. And to prevent the humour falling too
much upon the inflamed gums, let the child's belly be always kept loose
by gentle clysters, if he be bound; though oftentimes there is no need
of them, because they are at those times usually troubled with a
looseness; and yet, for all that, clysters may not be improper.

As to the other, which is to assist it cutting the teeth, that the nurse
must do from time to time by mollifying and loosening them, and by
rubbing them with her finger dipped in butter or honey; or let the child
have a virgin-wax candle to chew upon; or anoint the gums with the
mucilage of quince made with mallow-water, or with the brains of a hare;
also foment the cheeks with the decoction of althoea, and camomile
flowers and dill, or with the juice of mallows and fresh butter. If the
gums are inflamed, add juice of nightshade and lettuce. I have already
said, the nurse ought to take a temperate diet; I shall now only add,
that barley-broth, water-gruel, raw eggs, prunes, lettuce and endive,
are good for her; but let her avoid salt, sharp, biting and peppered
meats, and wine.



SECT. IX.--_Of the Flux of the Belly, or Looseness in Infants._

It is very common for infants to have the flux of the belly, or
looseness, especially upon the least indisposition; nor is it to be
wondered at, seeing their natural moistness contributes so much thereto;
and even if it be extraordinarily violent, such are in a better state of
health than those that are bound. The flux, if violent, proceeds from
divers causes, as 1. From breeding of the teeth, and is then commonly
attended with a fever in which the concoction is hindered, and the
nourishment corrupted. 2. From watching. 3. From pain. 4. From stirring
up of the humours by a fever. 5. When they suck or drink too much in a
fever. Sometimes they have a flux without breeding of teeth, from inward
cold in the guts or stomach that obstructs concoction. If it be from the
teeth, it is easily known; for the signs of breeding in teeth will
discover it. If it be from external cold, there are signs of other
causes. If from a humour flowing from the head there are signs of a
catarrh, and the excrements are frothy. If crude and raw humours are
voided, and there be wind, belching, and phlegmatic excrements, or if
they be yellow, green and stink, the flux is from a hot and sharp
humour. It is best in breeding of teeth when the belly is loose, as I
have said before; but if it be too violent, and you are afraid it may
end in a consumption, it must be stopped; and if the excrements that are
voided be black, and attended with a fever, it is very bad.

_Cure_. The remedy in this case, is principally in respect to the nurse,
and the condition of the milk must be chiefly observed; the nurse must
be cautioned that she eat no green fruit, nor things of hard concoction.
If the child suck not, remove the flux with such purges as leave a
cooling quality behind them, as syrup of honey or roses, or a clyster.
Take the decoction of millium, myrobolans, of each two or three ounces,
with an ounce or two of syrup of roses, and make a clyster. After
cleansing, if it proceed from a hot cause, give syrup of dried roses,
quinces, myrtles and a little sanguis draconis. Also anoint with oil of
roses, myrtles, mastich, each two drachms; with oil of myrtles and wax
make an ointment. Or take red roses and moulin, of each a handful;
cypress roots two drachms; make a bag, boil it in red wine and apply it
to the belly. Or use the plaster bread or stomach ointment. If the cause
be cold, and the excrements white give syrup of mastich and quinces,
with mint-water. Use outwardly, mint, mastich, cummin; or take rose
seeds, an ounce, cummin, aniseed, each two drachms; with oil of mastich,
wormwood and wax, make an ointment.



SECT. X.--_Of the Epilepsy and Convulsions in Children._

This is a distemper that is often fatal to young children, and
frequently proceeds from the brain, originating either from the parents,
or from vapours, or bad humours that twitch the membranes of the brain;
it is also sometimes caused by other distempers and by bad diet;
likewise, the toothache, when the brain consents, causes it, and so does
a sudden fright. As to the distemper itself, it is manifest and well
enough known where it is; and as to the cause whence it comes, you may
know by the signs of the disease, whether it comes from bad milk, or
worms, or teeth; if these are all absent, it is certain that the brain
is first affected; if it come with the small-pox or measles, it ceaseth
when they come forth, if nature be strong enough.

_Cure_. For the remedy of this grievous, and often mortal distemper,
give the following powder to prevent it, to a child as soon as it is
born:--Take male peony roots, gathered in the decrease of the moon, a
scruple; with leaf gold make a powder; or take peony roots, a drachm;
peony seeds, mistletoe of the oak, elk's hoof, man's skull, amber, each
a scruple; musk, two grains; make a powder. The best part of the cure is
taking care of the nurse's diet, which must be regular, by all means. If
it be from corrupt milk, provoke a vomit; to do which, hold down the
tongue, and put a quill dipped in sweet almonds, down the throat. If it
come from the worms, give such things as will kill the worms. If there
be a fever, with respect to that also, give coral smaragad and elk's
hoof. In the fit, give epileptic water, as lavender water, and rub with
oil of amber, or hang a peony root, and elk's hoof smaragad, about the
child's neck.

As to a convulsion, it is when the brain labours to cast out that which
troubles it; the mariner is in the marrow of the back, and fountain of
the nerves; it is a stubborn disease, and often kills.

Wash the body, when in the fit, with decoction of althoea, lily roots,
peony and camomile flowerets, and anoint it with man's and goose's
grease, oils of worms, orris, lilies, foxes, turpentine, mastich, storax
and calamint. The sun flower is also very good, boiled in water, to wash
the child.



FOOTNOTES:

[11] Tent (_surgical_). A bunch of some fibre such as sponge or
horsehair introduced into an opening, natural or artificial, to keep it
open, or increase its calibre.

       *       *       *       *       *




PROPER AND SAFE REMEDIES

FOR

CURING ALL THOSE DISTEMPERS

THAT ARE PECULIAR

TO THE FEMALE SEX

AND ESPECIALLY THOSE OBSERVATIONS

TO BEARING OF CHILDREN

       *       *       *       *       *

BOOK II

       *       *       *       *       *

Having finished the first part of this book, and wherein, I hope, amply
made good my promise to the reader, I am now come to treat only of those
distempers to which they are more subject when in a breeding condition,
and those that keep them from being so; together with such proper and
safe remedies as may be sufficient to repel them. And since amongst all
the diseases to which human nature is subject, there is none that more
diametrically opposes the very end of our creation, and the design of
nature in the formation of different sexes, and the power thereby given
us for the work of generation, than that of sterility or barrenness
which, where it prevails, renders the most accomplished midwife but a
useless person, and destroys the design of our book; I think, therefore,
that barrenness is an effect that deserves our first and principal
consideration.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER I

     _Of Barrenness; its several Kinds; with the proper Remedies for it;
     and the Signs of Insufficiency both in Men and Women._


SECTION I.--_Of Barrenness in General._

Barrenness is either natural or artificial.

Natural barrenness is when a woman is barren, though the instruments of
generation are perfect both in herself and in her husband, and no
preposterous or diabolical course used to it, and neither age, nor
disease, nor any defect hindering, and yet the woman remains naturally
barren.

Now this may proceed from a natural cause, for if the man and woman be
of one complexion, they seldom have children, and the reason is clear,
for the universal course of nature being formed of a composition of
contraries, cannot be increased by a composition of likes; and,
therefore, if the constitution of the woman be hot and dry, as well as
the man's there can be no conception; and if, on the contrary, the man
should be of a cold and moist constitution, as well as the woman, the
effect would be the same; and this barrenness is purely natural. The
only way to help this is, for people, before they marry, to observe each
others constitution and complexion, if they design to have children. If
their complexions and constitutions be alike, they are not fit to come
together, for discordant natures only, make harmony in the work of
generation.

Another natural cause of barrenness, is want of love between man and
wife. Love is that vivid principle that ought to inspire each organ in
the act of generation, or else it will be spiritless and dull; for if
their hearts be not united in love, how should their seed unite to cause
Conception? And this is sufficiently evinced, in that there never
follows conception on a rape. Therefore, if men and women design to have
children, let them live so, that their hearts as well as their bodies
may be united, or else they may miss their expectations.

A third cause of natural barrenness, is the letting virgins blood in the
arm before their natural courses are come down, which is usually in the
fourteenth and fifteenth year of their age; sometimes, perhaps before
the thirteenth, but never before the twelfth. And because usually, they
are out of order, and indisposed before their purgations come down,
their parents run to the doctor to know what is the matter; and he, if
not skilled, will naturally prescribe opening a vein in the arm,
thinking fullness of blood the cause; and thus she seems recovered for
the present: and when the young virgin happens to be in the same
disorder, the mother applies again to the surgeon, who uses the same
remedy; and by these means the blood is so diverted from its proper
channel, that it comes not down the womb as usual, and so the womb dries
up, and she is for ever barren. To prevent this, let no virgin blood in
the arm before her courses come down well; for that will bring the blood
downwards, and by that means provoke the _menstrua_ to come down.

Another cause of natural barrenness, is debility in copulation. If
persons perform not that act with all the bent and ardour that nature
requires, they may as well let it alone; for frigidity and coldness
never produces conception. Of the cure of this we will speak by and by,
after I have spoken of accidental barrenness, which is occasioned by
some morbific matter or infirmity in the body, either of the man or of
the woman, which being removed they become fruitful. And since, as I
have before noted, the first and great law of creation, was to increase
and multiply, and barrenness is in direct opposition to that law, and
frustrates the end of our creation, and often causes man and wife to
have hard thoughts one of another, I shall here, for the satisfaction of
well meaning people, set down the signs and causes of insufficiency both
in men and women; premising first that when people have no children,
they must not presently blame either party, for neither may be in fault.



SECT. II.--_Signs and Causes of Insufficiency in Men._

One cause may be in some viciousness of the yard, as if the same be
crooked, or any ligaments thereof distorted and broken, whereby the ways
and passages, through which the seed should flow, come to be stopped or
vitiated.

Another cause may be, too much weakness of the yard, and tenderness
thereof, so that it is not strong enough erected to inject seed into the
womb; for the strength and stiffness of the yard very much conduces to
conception, by reason of the forcible injection of the seed.

Also, if the stones have received any hurt, so that they cannot exercise
the proper gift in producing seed, or if they be oppressed with an
inflammation, tumour, wound or ulcer, or drawn up within the belly, and
not appearing outwardly.

Also, a man may be barren by reason of the defect of seed, as first, if
he cast forth no seed at all, or less in substance than is needful. Or,
secondly, if the seed be vicious, or unfit for generation; as on the one
side, it happens in bodies that are gross and fat, the matter of it
being defective; and on the other side, too much leanness, or continual
wasting or consumption of the body, destroys seed; nature turning all
the matter and substance thereof into the nutriment of the body.

Too frequent copulation is also one great cause of barrenness in men;
for it attracteth the seminal moisture from the stones, before it is
sufficiently prepared and concocted. So if any one, by daily
copulation, do exhaust and draw out all their moisture of the seed, then
do the stones draw the moist humours from the superior veins unto
themselves; and so, having but a little blood in them, they are forced
of necessity to cast it out raw and unconcocted, and thus the stones are
violently deprived of the moisture of their veins, and the superior
veins, and all the other parts of the body, of their vital spirits;
therefore it is no wonder that those who use immoderate copulation are
very weak in their bodies, seeing their whole body is deprived of the
best and purest blood, and of the spirit, insomuch that many who have
been too much addicted to that pleasure, have killed themselves in the
very act.

Gluttony, drunkenness, and other excesses, do so much hinder men from
fruitfulness, that it makes them unfit for generation.

But among other causes of barrenness of men, this also is one, and makes
them almost of the nature of eunuchs, and that is the incision or the
cutting of the veins behind their ears, which in case of distempers is
oftentimes done; for, according to the opinions of most physicians and
anatomists, the seed flows from the brain by those veins behind the
ears, more than any part of the body. From whence it is very probable,
that the transmission of the seed is hindered by the cutting of the
veins behind the ears, so that it cannot descend to the testicles, or
may come thither very crude and raw.



SECT. III.--_Signs and Causes of Insufficiency or Barrenness in Women._

Although there are many causes of the barrenness of women, yet the chief
and principal are internal, respecting either the privy parts, the womb
or menstruous blood.

Therefore, Hippocrates saith (speaking as well of easy as difficult
conception in women) the first consideration is to be had of their
species; for little women are more apt to conceive than great, slender
than gross, white and fair than ruddy and high coloured, black than wan,
those that have their veins conspicuous, than others; but to be very
fleshy is evil, and to have great swelled breasts is good.

The next thing to be considered is, the monthly purgations, whether they
have been duly every month, whether they flow plentifully, are of a good
colour, and whether they have been equal every month.

Then the womb, or place of conception, is to be considered. It ought to
be clean and sound, dry and soft, not retracted or drawn up; not prone
or descending downward; nor the mouth thereof turned away, nor too
close shut up. But to speak more particularly:--

The first parts to be spoken of are the _pudenda_, or privities, and the
womb; which parts are shut and enclosed either by nature or against
nature; and from hence, such women are called _imperforate_; as in some
women the mouth of their womb continues compressed, or closed up, from
the time of their birth until the coming down of their courses, and
then, on a sudden, when their terms press forward to purgation, they are
molested with great and unusual pains. Sometimes these break of their
own accord, others are dissected and opened by physicians; others never
break at all, which bring on disorders that end in death.

All these _Aetius_ particularly handles, showing that the womb is shut
three manner of ways, which hinders conception. And the first is when
the _pudenda_ grow and cleave together. The second is, when these
certain membranes grow in the middle part of the matrix within. The
third is, when (though the lips and bosom of the _pudenda_ may appear
fair and open), the mouth of the womb may be quite shut up. All which
are occasions of barrenness, as they hinder the intercourse with man,
the monthly courses, and conception.

But amongst all causes of barrenness in women, the greatest is in the
womb, which is the field of generation; and if this field is corrupt, it
is in vain to expect any fruit, be it ever so well sown. It may be unfit
for generation by reason of many distempers to which it is subject; as
for instance, overmuch heat and overmuch cold; for women whose wombs are
too thick and cold, cannot conceive, because coldness extinguishes the
heat of the human seed. Immoderate moisture of the womb also destroys
the seed of man, and makes it ineffectual, as corn sown in ponds and
marshes; and so does overmuch dryness of the womb, so that the seed
perisheth for want of nutriment. Immoderate heat of the womb is also a
cause of barrenness for it scorcheth up the seed as corn sown in the
drought of summer; for immoderate heat burns all parts of the body, so
that no conception can live in the womb.

When unnatural humours are engendered, as too much phlegm, tympanies,
wind, water, worms, or any other evil humour abounding contrary to
nature, it causes barrenness as do all terms not coming down in due
order.

A woman may also have accidental causes of barrenness (at least such as
may hinder her conception), as sudden frights, anger, grief and
perturbation of mind; too violent exercises, as leaping, dancing,
running, after copulation, and the like. But I will now add some signs,
by which these things may be known.

If the cause of barrenness be in the man, through overmuch heat in the
seed, the woman may easily feel that in receiving it.

If the nature of the woman be too hot, and so unfit for conception, it
will appear by her having her terms very little, and the colour
inclining to yellowness; she is also very hasty, choleric and crafty;
her pulse beats very swift, and she is very desirous of copulation.

To know whether the fault is in the man or in the woman, sprinkle the
man's urine upon a lettuce leaf, and the woman's urine upon another, and
that which dries away first is unfruitful. Also take five wheaten corns
and seven beans, put them into an earthen pot, and let the party make
water therein; let this stand seven days, and if in that time they begin
to sprout, then the party is fruitful; but if they sprout not, then the
party is barren, whether it be the man or the woman; this is a certain
sign.

There are some that make this experiment of a woman's fruitfulness; take
myrrh, red storax and some odoriferous things, and make a perfume of
which let the woman receive into the neck of the womb through a funnel;
if the woman feels the smoke ascend through her body to the nose, then
she is fruitful; otherwise she is barren. Some also take garlic and
beer, and cause the woman to lie upon her back upon it, and if she feel
the scent thereof in her nose, it is a sign of her being fruitful.

Culpepper and others also give a great deal of credit to the following
experiment. Take a handful of barley, and steep half of it in the urine
of a man, and the other half in the urine of the woman, for the space of
twenty-four hours; then take it out, and put the man's by itself, and
the woman's by itself; set it in a flower-pot, or some other thing,
where let it dry; water the man's every morning with his own urine, and
the woman's with hers, and that which grows first is the most fruitful;
but if they grow not at all, they are both naturally barren.

_Cure_. If the barrenness proceeds from stoppage of the menstrua, let
the woman sweat, for that opens the parts; and the best way to sweat is
in a hot-house. Then let the womb be strengthened by drinking a draught
of white wine, wherein a handful of stinking arrach, first bruised, has
been boiled, for by a secret magnetic virtue, it strengthens the womb,
and by a sympathetic quality, removes any disease thereof. To which add
also a handful of vervain, which is very good to strengthen both the
womb and the head, which are commonly afflicted together by sympathy.
Having used these two or three days, if they come not down, take of
calamint, pennyroyal, thyme, betony, dittany, burnet, feverfew, mugwort,
sage, peony roots, juniper berries, half a handful of each, or as many
as can be got; let these be boiled in beer, and taken for her drink.

Take one part of gentian-root, two parts of centaury, distil them with
ale in an alembic after you have bruised the gentian-roots and infused
them well. This water is an admirable remedy to provoke the terms. But
if you have not this water in readiness, take a drachm of centaury, and
half a drachm of gentian-roots bruised, boiled in posset drink, and
drink half a drachm of it at night going to bed. Seed of wild navew
beaten to powder, and a drachm of it taken in the morning in white wine,
also is very good; but if it answers not, she must be let blood in the
legs. And be sure you administer your medicines a little before the full
of the moon, by no means in the wane of the moon; if you do, you will
find them ineffectual.

If barrenness proceed from the overflowing of the menstrua, then
strengthen the womb as you were taught before; afterwards anoint the
veins of the back with oil of roses, oil of myrtle and oil of quinces
every night, and then wrap a piece of white baise about your veins, the
cotton side next to the skin and keep the same always to it. But above
all, I recommend this medicine to you. Take comfrey-leaves or roots, and
clown woundwort, of each a handful; bruise them well, and boil them in
ale, and drink a good draught of it now and then. Or take cinnamon,
cassia lignea, opium, of each two drachms; myrrh, white pepper,
galbanum, of each one drachm; dissolve the gum and opium in white wine;
beat the rest into powder and make pills, mixing them together exactly,
and let the patient take two each night going to bed; but let the pills
not exceed fifteen grains.

If barrenness proceed from a flux in the womb, the cure must be
according to the cause producing it, or which the flux proceeds from,
which may be known by signs; for a flux of the womb, being a continual
distillation from it for a long time together, the colour of what is
voided shows what humour it is that offends; in some it is red, and that
proceeds from blood putrified, in some it is yellow, and that denotes
choler; in others white and pale, and denotes phlegm. If pure blood
comes out, as if a vein were opened, some corrosion or gnawing of the
womb is to be feared. All these are known by the following signs:

The place of conception is continually moist with the humours, the face
ill-coloured, the party loathes meat and breathes with difficulty, the
eyes are much swollen, which is sometimes without pain. If the offending
humour be pure blood, then you must let blood in the arm, and the
cephalic vein is fittest to draw back the blood; then let the juice of
plantain and comfrey be injected into the womb. If phlegm be a cause,
let cinnamon be a spice used in all her meats and drinks, and let her
take a little Venice treacle or mithridate every morning. Let her boil
burnet, mugwort, feverfew and vervain in all her broths. Also, half a
drachm of myrrh, taken every morning, is an excellent remedy against
this malady. If choler be the cause, let her take burrage, buglos, red
roses, endive and succory roots, lettuce and white poppy-seed, of each a
handful; boil these in white wine until one half be wasted; let her
drink half a pint every morning to which half pint add syrup of chicory
and syrup of peach-flowers, of each an ounce, with a little rhubarb, and
this will gently purge her. If it proceed from putrified blood, let her
be bled in the foot, and then strengthen the womb, as I have directed in
stopping the menstrua.

If barrenness be occasioned by the falling out of the womb, as sometimes
it happens, let her apply sweet scents to the nose, such as civet,
galbanum, storax, calamitis, wood of aloes; and such other things as
are of that nature; and let her lay stinking things to the womb, such as
asafoetida, oil of amber, or the smoke of her own hair, being burnt; for
this is a certain truth, that the womb flies from all stinking, and to
all sweet things. But the most infallible cure in this case is; take a
common burdock leaf (which you may keep dry, if you please, all the
year), apply this to her head and it will draw the womb upwards. In fits
of the mother, apply it to the soles of the feet, and it will draw the
womb downwards. But seed beaten into a powder, draws the womb which way
you please, accordingly as it is applied.

If barrenness in the woman proceed from a hot cause, let her take whey
and clarify it; then boil plantain leaves and roots in it, and drink it
for her ordinary drink. Let her inject plantain juice into her womb with
a syringe. If it be in the winter, when you cannot get the juice, make a
strong decoction of the leaves and roots in water, and inject that up
with a syringe, but let it be blood warm, and you will find this
medicine of great efficacy. And further, to take away barrenness
proceeding from hot causes, take of conserve of roses, cold lozenges,
make a tragacanth, the confections of trincatelia; and use, to smell to,
camphor, rosewater and saunders. It is also good to bleed the basilica
or liver vein, and take four or five ounces of blood, and then take this
purge; take electuarium de epithymo de succo rosarum, of each two
drachms and a half; clarified whey, four ounces; mix them well together,
and take it in the morning fasting; sleep after it about an hour and a
half, and fast for four hours after; and about an hour before you eat
anything, drink a good draught of whey. Also take lilywater, four
ounces; mandragore water, one ounce; saffron, half a scruple; beat the
saffron to a powder, and mix it with waters, drink them warm in the
morning; use these eight days together.



_Some apparent Remedy against Barrenness and to cause Fruitfulness._

Take broom flowers, smallage, parsley seed, cummin, mugwort, feverfew,
of each half a scruple; aloes, half an ounce; Indian salt, saffron, of
each half a drachm; beat and mix them together, and put it to five
ounces of feverfew water warm; stop it up, and let it stand and dry in a
warm place, and this do, two or three times, one after the other; then
make each drachm into six pills, and take one of them every night before
supper.

For a purging medicine against barrenness, take conserve of benedicta
lax, a quarter of an ounce; depsillo three drachms, electuary de
rosarum, one drachm; mix them together with feverfew water, and drink it
in the morning betimes. About three days after the patient hath taken
this purge, let her be bled, taking four or five ounces from the median,
or common black vein in the foot; and then give for five successive
days, filed ivory, a drachm and a half, in feverfew water; and during
the time let her sit in the following bath an hour together, morning and
night. Take mild yellow sapes, daucas, balsam wood and fruit, ash-keys,
of each two handfuls, red and white behen, broom flowers, of each a
handful; musk, three grains; amber, saffron, of each a scruple; boiled
in water sufficiently; but the musk, saffron, amber and broom flowers
must be put into the decoction, after it is boiled and strained.



_A Confection very good against Barrenness._

Take pistachia, eringoes, of each half an ounce; saffron, one drachm;
lignum aloes, galengal, mace, coriophilla, balm flowers, red and white
behen, of each four scruples; syrup of confected ginger, twelve ounces;
white sugar, six ounces, decoct all these in twelve ounces of balm
water, and stir them well together; then put in it musk and amber, of
each a scruple; take thereof the quantity of a nutmeg three times a day;
in the morning, an hour before noon and an hour after supper.

But if the cause of barrenness, either in man or woman, be through
scarcity or diminution of the natural seed, then such things are to be
taken as do increase the seed, and incite to stir up to venery, and
further conception; which I shall here set down, and then conclude the
chapter concerning barrenness.

For this, yellow rape seed baked in bread is very good; also young, fat
flesh, not too much salted; also saffron, the tails of stincus, and long
pepper prepared in wine. But let such persons eschew all sour, sharp,
doughy and slimy meats, long sleep after meat, surfeiting and
drunkenness, and so much as they can, keep themselves from sorrow,
grief, vexation and anxious care.

These things following increase the natural seed, stir up the venery and
recover the seed again when it is lost, viz., eggs, milk, rice, boiled
in milk, sparrows' brains, flesh, bones and all; the stones and pizzles
of bulls, bucks, rams and bears, also cocks' stones, lambs' stones,
partridges', quails' and pheasants' eggs. And this is an undeniable
aphorism, that whatever any creature is addicted unto, they move or
incite the man or the woman that eats them, to the like, and therefore
partridges, quails, sparrows, etc., being extremely addicted to venery,
they work the same effect on those men and women that eat them. Also,
take notice, that in what part of the body the faculty that you would
strengthen, lies, take that same part of the body of another creature,
in whom the faculty is strong, as a medicine. As for instance, the
procreative faculty lies in the testicles; therefore, cocks' stones,
lambs' stones, etc., are proper to stir up venery. I will also give you
another general rule; all creatures that are fruitful being eaten, make
them fruitful that eat them, as crabs, lobsters, prawns, pigeons, etc.
The stones of a fox, dried and beaten to a powder, and a drachm taken in
the morning in sheep's milk, and the stones of a boar taken in like
manner, are very good. The heart of a male quail carried about a man,
and the heart of a female quail carried about a woman, causes natural
love and fruitfulness. Let them, also, that would increase their seed,
eat and drink of the best, as much as they can; for _sine Cerere el
Libero, friget Venus_, is an old proverb, which is, "without good meat
and drink, Venus will be frozen to death."

Pottages are good to increase the seed; such as are made of beans, peas,
and lupins, mixed with sugar. French beans, wheat sodden in broth,
aniseed, also onions, stewed garlic, leeks, yellow rapes, fresh mugwort
roots, eringo roots confected, ginger connected, etc. Of fruits, hazel
nuts, cyprus nuts, pistachio, almonds and marchpanes thereof. Spices
good to increase seed are cinnamon, galengal, long pepper, cloves,
ginger, saffron and asafoetida, a drachm and a half taken in good wine,
is very good for this purpose.

The weakness and debility of a man's yard, being a great hindrance to
procreation let him use the following ointment to strengthen it: Take
wax, oil of beaver-cod, marjoram, gentle and oil of costus, of each a
like quantity, mix them into an ointment, and put it to a little musk,
and with it anoint the yard, cods, etc. Take of house emmets, three
drachms, oil of white safannum, oil of lilies, of each an ounce; pound
and bruise the ants, and put them to the oil and let them stand in the
sun six days; then strain out the oil and add to it euphorbium one
scruple, pepper and rue, of each one drachm, mustard seed half a drachm,
set this altogether in the sun two or three days, then anoint the
instrument of generation therewith.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER II

     _The Diseases of the Womb._


I have already said, that the womb is the field of generation; and if
this field be corrupted, it is vain to expect any fruit, although it be
ever so well sown. It is, therefore, not without reason that I intend in
this chapter to set down the several distempers to which the womb is
obnoxious, with proper and safe remedies against them.



SECTION I.--_Of the Hot Distemper of the Womb._

The distemper consists in excess of heat; for as heat of the womb is
necessary for conception, so if it be too much, it nourisheth not the
seed, but it disperseth its heat, and hinders the conception. This
preternatural heat is sometimes from the birth, and causeth barrenness,
but if it be accidental, it is from hot causes, that bring the heat and
the blood to the womb; it arises also from internal and external
medicines, and from too much hot meat, drink and exercise. Those that
are troubled with this distemper have but few courses, and those are
yellow, black, burnt or sharp, have hair betimes on their privities, are
very prone to lust, subject to headache, and abound with choler, and
when the distemper is strong upon them, they have but few terms, which
are out of order, being bad and hard to flow, and in time they become
hypochondriacal, and for the most part barren, having sometimes a
phrenzy of the womb.

_Cure_. The remedy is to use coolers, so that they offend not the
vessels that most open for the flux of the terms. Therefore, take the
following inwardly; succory, endive, violets, water lilies, sorrel,
lettuce, saunders and syrups and conserve made thereof. Also take a
conserve of succory, violets, water-lilies, burrage, each an ounce;
conserve of roses, half an ounce, diamargation frigid, diatriascantal,
each half a drachm; and with syrup of violets, or juice of citrons, make
an electuary. For outward applications, make use of ointment of roses,
violets, water-lilies, gourd, Venus navel, applied to the back and
loins.

Let the air be cool, her garments thin, and her food endive, lettuce,
succory and barley. Give her no hot meats, nor strong wine, unless mixed
with water. Rest is good for her, but she must abstain from copulation,
though she may sleep as long as she pleases.



SECT. II.--_Of the Cold Distempers of the Womb._

This distemper is the reverse of the foregoing, and equally an enemy to
generation, being caused by a cold quality abounding to excess, and
proceeds from a too cold air, rest, idleness and cooling medicines. It
may be known by an aversion to venery, and taking no pleasure in the act
of copulation when the seed is spent; the terms are phlegmatic, thick
and slimy, and do not flow as they should; the womb is windy and the
seed crude and waterish. It is the cause of obstructions and barrenness,
and is hard to be cured.

_Cure_. Take galengal, cinnamon, nutmeg mace, cloves, ginger, cububs,
cardamom, grains of paradise, each an ounce and a half, galengal, six
drachms, long pepper, half an ounce, Zedoary five drachms; bruise them
and add six quarts of wine, put them into a cellar nine days, daily
stirring them; then add of mint two handfuls, and let them stand
fourteen days, pour off the wine and bruise them, and then pour on the
wine again, and distil them. Also anoint with oil of lilies, rue,
angelica, cinnamon, cloves, mace and nutmeg. Let her diet and air be
warm, her meat of easy concoction, seasoned with ant-seed, fennel and
thyme; and let her avoid raw fruits and milk diets.



SECT. III.--_Of the Inflation of the Womb._

The inflation of the womb is a stretching of it by wind, called by some
a windy mole; the wind proceeds from a cold matter, whether thick or
thin, contained in the veins of the womb, by which the heat thereof is
overcome, and which either flows thither from other parts, or is
gathered there by cold meats and drinks. Cold air may be a producing
cause of it also, as women that lie in are exposed to it. The wind is
contained either in the cavity of the vessels of the womb, or between
the tumicle, and may be known by a swelling in the region of the womb,
which sometimes reaches to the navel, loins and diaphragm, and rises and
abates as the wind increaseth or decreaseth. It differs from the dropsy,
in that it never swells so high. That neither physician nor midwife may
take it for dropsy, let them observe the signs of the woman with the
child laid down in a former part of this work; and if any sign be
wanting, they may suspect it to be an inflation; of which it is a
further sign, that in conception the swelling is invariable; also if you
strike upon the belly, in an inflation, there will be noise, but not so
in case there be a conception. It also differs from a mole, because in
that there is a weight and hardness of the belly, and when the patient
moves from one side to the other she feels a great weight which moveth,
but not so in this. If the inflation continue without the cavity of the
womb, the pain is greater and more extensive, nor is there any noise,
because the wind is more pent up.

_Cure_. This distemper is neither of a long continuance nor dangerous,
if looked after in time; and if it be in the cavity of the womb it is
more easily expelled. To which purpose give her diaphnicon, with a
little castor and sharp clysters that expel the wind. If this distemper
happen to a woman in travail let her not purge after delivery, nor
bleed, because it is from a cold matter; but if it come after
child-bearing, and her terms come down sufficiently, and she has
fullness of blood, let the saphoena vein be opened, after which, let her
take the following electuary: take conserve of betony and rosemary, of
each an ounce and a half; candied eringoes, citron peel candied, each
half an ounce; diacimium, diagenel, each a drachm; oil of aniseed, six
drops, and with syrup of citrons make an electuary. For outward
application make a cataplasm of rue, mugwort, camomile, dill, calamint,
new pennyroyal, thyme, with oil of rue, keir and camomile. And let the
following clyster to expel the wind be put into the womb: Take agnus
castus, cinnamon, each two drachms, boil them in wine to half a pint.
She may likewise use sulphur, Bath and Spa waters, both inward and
outward, because they expel the wind.



SECT. IV.--_Of the Straitness of the Womb and its Vessels._

This is another effect of the womb, which is a very great obstruction to
the bearing of children, hindering both the flow of the menses and
conception, and is seated in the vessel of the womb, and the neck
thereof. The causes of this straitness are thick and rough humours, that
stop the mouths of the veins and arteries. These humours are bred either
by gross or too much nourishment, when the heat of the womb is so weak
that it cannot attenuate the humours, which by reason thereof, either
flow from the whole body, or are gathered into the womb. Now the vessels
are made straiter or closer several ways; sometimes by inflammation,
scirrhous or other tumours; sometimes by compressions, scars, or by
flesh or membranes that grow after a wound. The signs by which this is
known are, the stoppage of the terms, not conceiving, and condities
abounding in the body which are all shown by particular signs, for if
there is a wound, or the secundine be pulled out by force phlegm comes
from the wound; if stoppage of the terms be from an old obstruction of
humours, it is hard to be cured; if it be only from the disorderly use
of astringents, it is more curable; if it be from a scirrhous, or other
tumours that compress or close the vessel, the disease is incurable.

_Cure_. For the cure of that which is curable, obstructions must be
taken away, phlegm must be purged, and she must be let blood, as will be
hereafter directed in the stoppage of the terms. Then use the following
medicines: Take of aniseed and fennel seed, each a drachm; rosemary,
pennyroyal, calamint, betony flowers, each an ounce; castus, cinnamon,
galengal, each half an ounce; saffron half a drachm, with wine. Or take
asparagus roots, parsley roots, each an ounce; pennyroyal, calamint,
each a handful; wallflowers, gilly-flowers, each two handfuls; boil,
strain and add syrup of mugwort, an ounce and a half. For a fomentation,
take pennyroyal, mercury, calamint, marjoram, mugwort, each two
handfuls, sage, rosemary bays, camomile-flowers, each a handful, boil
them in water and foment the groin and the bottom of the belly; or let
her sit up to the navel in a bath, and then anoint about the groin with
oil of rue, lilies, dill, etc.



SECT. V.--_Of the falling of the Womb._

This is another evil effect of the womb which is both very troublesome,
and also a hindrance to conception. Sometimes the womb falleth to the
middle of the thighs, nay, almost to the knees, and may be known then by
its hanging out. Now, that which causeth the womb to change its place
is, that the ligaments by which it is bound to the other parts, are not
in order; for there are four ligaments, two above, broad and membranous,
round and hollow; it is also bound to the great vessels by veins and
arteries, and to the back by nerves; but the place is changed when it is
drawn another way, or when the ligaments are loose, and it falls down by
its own weight. It is drawn on one side when the menses are hindered
from flowing, and the veins and arteries are full, namely, those that go
to the womb. If it be a mole on one side, the liver and spleen cause it;
by the liver vein on the right side, and the spleen on the left, as they
are more or less filled. Others are of opinion, it comes from the
solution of the connexion of the fibrous neck and the parts adjacent;
and that it is from the weight of the womb descending; this we deny not,
but the ligaments must be loose or broken. But women with a dropsy could
not be said to have the womb fallen down, if it came only from
looseness; but in them it is caused by the saltness of the water, which
dries more than it moistens. Now, if there be a little tumour, within or
without the privities, it is nothing else but a descent of the womb, but
if there be a tumour like a goose's egg and a hole at the bottom and
there is at first a great pain in the parts to which the womb is
fastened, as the loins, the bottom of the belly, and the os sacrum, it
proceeds from the breaking or stretching of the ligaments; and a little
after the pain is abated, and there is an impediment in walking, and
sometimes blood comes from the breach of the vessels, and the excrements
and urine are stopped, and then a fever and convulsion ensueth,
oftentimes proving mortal, especially if it happen to women with child.

_Cure_. For the cure of this distemper, first put up the womb before the
air alter it, or it be swollen or inflamed; and for this purpose give a
clyster to remove the excrements, and lay her upon her back, with her
legs abroad, and her thighs lifted up and her head down; then take the
tumour in your hand and thrust it in without violence; if it be swelled
by alteration and cold, foment it with the decoction of mallows,
althoea, lime, fenugreek, camomile flowers, bay-berries, and anoint it
with oil of lilies, and hen's grease. If there be an inflammation, do
not put it up, but fright it in, by putting a red-hot iron before it
and making a show as if you intended to burn it; but first sprinkle upon
it the powder of mastich, frankincense and the like; thus, take
frankincense, mastich, each two drachms; sarcocol steeped in milk,
drachm; mummy, pomegranate flowers, sanguisdraconis, each half a drachm.
When it is put up, let her lie with her legs stretched, and one upon the
other, for eight or ten days, and make a pessary in the form of a pear,
with cork or sponge, and put it into the womb, dipped in sharp wine, or
juice of acacia, with powder of sanguis, with galbanum and bdellium.
Apply also a cupping-glass, with a great flame, under the navel or paps,
or both kidneys, and lay this plaster to the back; take opopanax, two
ounces, storax liquid, half an ounce; mastich, frankincense, pitch,
bole, each two drachms; then with wax make a plaster; or take laudanum,
a drachm and a half; mastich, and frankincense, each half a drachm, wood
aloes, cloves, spike, each a drachm; ash-coloured ambergris, four
grains: musk, half a scruple; make two round plasters to be laid on each
side of the navel; make a fume of snails' skins salted, or of garlic,
and let it be taken in by the funnel. Use also astringent fomentations
of bramble leaves, plantain, horse-tails, myrtles, each two handfuls;
wormseed, two handfuls; pomegranate flowers, half an ounce; boil them in
wine and water. For an injection take comfrey root, an ounce;
rupturewort, two drachms; yarrow, mugwort, each half an ounce; boil them
in red wine, and inject with a syringe. To strengthen the womb, take
hartshorn, bays, of each half a drachm; myrrh half a drachm; make a
powder of two doses, and give it with sharp wine. Or you may take
Zedoary, parsnip seed, crabs' eyes prepared, each a drachm, nutmeg, half
a drachm; and give a drachm, in powder; but astringents must be used
with great caution, lest by stopping the courses a worse mischief
follow. To keep in its place, make rollers and ligatures as for a
rupture; and put pessaries into the bottom of the womb, that may force
it to remain. Let the diet be such as has drying, astringent and glueing
qualities, as rice, starch, quinces, pears and green cheese; but let the
summer fruits be avoided; and let her wine be astringent and red.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER III

     _Of Diseases Relating to Women's Monthly Courses._


SECTION I.--_Of Women's Monthly Courses in General._

That divine Providence, which, with a wisdom peculiar to itself, has
appointed woman to conceive by coition with man, and to bear and bring
forth children, has provided for nourishment of children during their
recess in the womb of their mother, by that redundancy of the blood
which is natural to all women; and which, flowing out at certain periods
of time (when they are not pregnant) are from thence called _terms_ and
_menses_, from their monthly flux of excrementitious and unprofitable
blood. Now, that the matter flowing forth is excrementitious, is to be
understood only with respect to the redundancy and overplus thereof,
being an excrement only with respect to its quantity; for as to its
quality, it is as pure and incorrupt as any blood in the veins; and this
appears from the final cause of it, which is the propagation and
conservation of mankind, and also from the generation of it, being
superfluity of the last aliment of the fleshy parts. If any ask, if the
menses be not of hurtful quality, how can they cause such venomous
effects; if they fall upon trees and herbs, they make the one barren
and mortify the other: I answer, this malignity is contracted in the
womb, for the woman, wanting native heat to digest the superfluity,
sends it to the matrix, where seating itself till the mouth of the womb
be dilated, it becomes corrupt and mortified; which may easily be,
considering the heat and moistness of the place; and so this blood being
out of its proper vessels, offends in quality.



SECT. II.--_Of the Terms coming out of order, either before or after the
usual Time._

Having, in the former part of this work, treated, of the suppression and
overflowing of the monthly terms, I shall content myself with referring
the reader thereto, and proceed to speak of their coming out of order,
either before or after the usual time.

Both these proceed from an ill constitution of body. Everything is
beautiful in its order, in nature as well as in morality; and if the
order of nature be broken, it shows the body to be out of order. Of each
of these effects briefly.

When the monthly courses come before their time, showing a depraved
excretion, and flowing sometimes twice a month, the cause is in the
blood, which stirs up the expulsive faculty of the womb, or else in the
whole body, and is frequently occasioned by the person's diet, which
increases the blood too much, making it too sharp or too hot. If the
retentive faculty of the womb be weak, and the expulsive faculty strong,
and of a quick sense, it brings them forth the sooner. Sometimes they
flow sooner by reason of a fall, stroke or some violent passion, which
the parties themselves can best relate. If it be from heat, thin and
sharp humours, it is known by the distemper of the whole body. The
looseness of the vessels and the weakness of the retentive faculty, is
known from a moist and loose habit of the body. It is more troublesome
than dangerous, but hinders conception, and therefore the cure is
necessary for all, but especially such as desire children. If it
proceeds from a sharp blood, let her temper it by a good diet and
medicines. To which purpose, let her use baths of iron water, that
correct the distemper of the bowels, and then evacuate. If it proceeds
from the retentive faculty, and looseness of the vessels, it is to be
corrected with gentle astringents.

As to the courses flowing after the usual time, the causes are,
thickness of the blood, and the smallness of its quantity, with the
stoutness of the passage, and weakness of the expulsive faculties.
Either of these singly may stop the courses, but if they all concur,
they render the distemper worse. If the blood abounds not in such a
quantity as may stir up nature to expel it, its purging must necessarily
be deferred, till there be enough. And if the blood be thick, the
passage stopped, and the expulsive faculty weak, the menses must needs
be out of order and the purging of them retarded.

For the cure of this, if the quantity of blood be small, let her use a
larger diet, and a very little exercise. If the blood be thick and foul,
let it be made thin, and the humours mixed therewith, evacuated. It is
good to purge, after the courses have done flowing, and to use calamint,
and, indeed, the oftener she purges, the better. She may also use fumes
and pessaries, apply cupping glasses without scarification to the inside
of the thighs, and rub the legs and scarify the ankles, and hold the
feet in warm water four or five days before the courses come down. Let
her also anoint the bottom of her belly with things proper to provoke
the terms.



_Remedies for Diseases in Women's Paps._

Make a cataplasm of bean meal and salad oil, and lay it to the place
afflicted. Or anoint with the juice of papilaris. This must be done when
the papa are very sore.

If the paps be hard and swollen, take a handful of rue, colewort roots,
horehound and mint; if you cannot get all these conveniently, any two
will do; pound the handful in honey, and apply it once every day till
healed.

If the nipples be stiff and sore, anoint twice a day with Florence oil,
till healed. If the paps be flabby and hanging, bruise a little hemlock,
and apply it to the breast for three days; but let it not stand above
seven hours. Or, which is safer, rusae juice, well boiled, with a little
sinapios added thereto, and anoint.

If the paps be hard and dead, make a plate of lead pretty thin, to
answer the breasts; let this stand nine hours each day, for three days.
Or sassafras bruised, and used in like manner.



_Receipt for Procuring Milk._

Drink arpleui, drawn as tea, for twenty-one days. Or eat of aniseeds.
Also the juice of arbor vitae, a glassful once a day for eleven days, is
very good, for it quickens the memory, strengthens the body, and causeth
milk to flow in abundance.



_Directions for Drawing of Blood._

Drawing of blood was first invented for good and salutary purposes,
although often abused and misapplied. To bleed in the left arm removes
long continued pains and headaches. It is also good for those who have
got falls and bruises.

Bleeding is good for many disorders, and generally proves a cure, except
in some extraordinary cases, and in those cases bleeding is hurtful. If
a woman be pregnant, to draw a little blood will give her ease, good
health, and a lusty child.

Bleeding is a most certain cure for no less than twenty-one disorders,
without any outward or inward applications; and for many more with
application of drugs, herbs and flowers.

When the moon is on the increase, you may let blood at any time day or
night; but when she is on the decline, you must bleed only in the
morning.

Bleeding may be performed from the month of March to November. No
bleeding in December, January or February, unless an occasion require
it. The months of March, April and November, are the three chief months
of the year for bleeding in; but it may be performed with safety from
the ninth of March to the nineteenth of November.

To prevent the dangers that may arise from she unskilful drawing of
blood, let none open a but a person of experience and practice.

There are three sorts of people you must not let draw blood; first
ignorant and inexperienced persons. Secondly, those who have bad sight
and trembling hands, whether skilful or unskilled. For when the hand
trembles, the lance is apt to start from the vein, and the flesh be
thereby damaged, which may hurt, canker, and very much torment the
patient. Thirdly, let no woman bleed, but such as have gone through a
course of midwifery at college, for those who are unskilful may cut an
artery, to the great damage of the patient. Besides, what is still
worse, those pretended bleeders, who take it up at their own hand,
generally keep unedged and rusty lancets, which prove hurtful, even in a
skilful hand. Accordingly you ought to be cautious in choosing your
physician; a man of learning knows what vein to open for each disorder;
he knows how much blood to take as soon as he sees the patient, and he
can give you suitable advice concerning your disorder.

       *       *       *       *       *




PART III

ARISTOTLE'S BOOK OF PROBLEMS

WITH OTHER

ASTROMER, ASTROLOGERS AND

PHYSICIANS,

CONCERNING

THE STATE OF MAN'S BODY.


Q. Among all living creatures, why hath man only his countenance lifted
up towards Heaven. A. 1. From the will of the Creator. But although this
answer be true, yet it seemeth not to be of force, because that so all
questions might be easily resolved. Therefore, 2. I answer that, for the
most part, every workman doth make his first work worse, and then his
second better! so God creating all other animals before man gave them
their face looking down to the earth; and then secondly he created man,
unto whom he gave an upright shape, lifted unto heaven, because it is
drawn from divinity, and it is derived from the goodness of God, who
maketh all his works both perfect and good. 3. Man only, among all
living creatures, is ordained to the kingdom of heaven, and therefore
hath his face elevated and lifted up to heaven, because that despising
earthly and worldly things, he ought often to contemplate on heavenly
things. 4. That the reasonable man is like unto angels, and finally
ordained towards God; and therefore he hath a figure looking upward. 5.
Man is a microcosm, that is, a little world, and therefore he doth
command all other living creatures and they obey him. 6. Naturally there
is unto everything and every work, that form and figure given which is
fit and proper for its motion; as unto the heavens, roundness, to the
fire a pyramidical form, that is, broad beneath and sharp towards the
top, which form is most apt to ascend; and so man has his face towards
heaven to behold the wonders of God's works.

Q. Why are the heads of men hairy? A. The hair is the ornament of the
head, and the brain is purged of gross humours by the growing of the
hair, from the highest to the lowest, which pass through the pores of
the exterior flesh, become dry, and are converted into hair. This
appears to be the case, from the circumstance that in all man's body
there is nothing drier than the hair, for it is drier than the bones;
and it is well known that some beasts are nourished with bones, as dogs,
but they cannot digest feathers or hair, but void them undigested, being
too hot for nourishment. 2. It is answered, that the brain is purged in
three different ways; of superfluous watery humours by the eyes, of
choler by the nose, and of phlegm by the hair, which is the opinion of
the best physicians.

Q. Why have men longer hair on their heads than any other living
creature? A. Arist. de Generat. Anim. says, that men have the moistest
brain of all living creatures from which the seed proceedeth which is
converted into the long hair of the head. 2. The humours of men are fat,
and do not become dry easily; and therefore the hair groweth long on
them. In beasts, the humours easily dry, and therefore the hair groweth
not so long.

Q. Why doth the hair take deeper root in man's skin than in that of any
other living creatures? A. Because it has greater store of nourishment
in man, and therefore grows more in the inward parts of man. And this is
the reason why in other creatures the hair doth alter and change with
the skin, and not in man, unless by a scar or wound.

Q. Why have women longer hair than men? A. Because women are moister and
more phlegmatic than men, and therefore there is more matter for hair to
them, and, by consequence, the length also of their hair. And,
furthermore, this matter is more increased in women than men from their
interior parts, and especially in the time of their monthly terms,
because the matter doth then ascend, whereby the humour that breedeth
the hair, doth increase. 2. Because women want beards; so the matter of
the beard doth go into that of the hair.

Q. Why have some women soft hair and some hard? A. 1. The hair hath
proportion with the skin; of which some is hard, some thick, some subtle
and soft, some gross; therefore, the hair which grows out of thick,
gross skin, is thick and gross; that which groweth out of a subtle and
fine skin, is fine and soft; when the pores are open, then cometh forth
much humour, and therefore hard hair is engendered; and when the pores
are strait, then there doth grow soft and fine hair. This doth evidently
appear in men, because women have softer hair than they; for in women
the pores are shut and strait, by reason of their coldness. 2. Because
for the most part, choleric men have harder and thicker hair than
others, by reason of their heat, and because their pores are always
open, and therefore they have beards sooner than others. For this reason
also, beasts that have hard hair are boldest, because such have
proceeded from heat and choler, examples of which we have in the bear
and the boar; and contrariwise, those beasts that have soft hair are
fearful, because they are cold, as the hare and the hart. 3. From the
climate where a man is born; because in hot regions hard and gross hair
is engendered, as appears in the Ethiopians, and the contrary is the
case is cold countries toward the north.

Q. Why have some men curled hair, and some smooth? A. From the superior
degree of heat in some men, which makes the hair curl and grow upward;
this is proved by a man's having smooth hair when he goes into a hot
bath, and it afterwards becomes curled. Therefore keepers of baths have
often curled hair, as also Ethiopians and choleric men. But the cause of
this smoothness, is the abundance of moist humours.

Q. Why do women show ripeness by hair in their privy parts, and not
elsewhere, but men in their breasts? A. Because in men and women there
is abundance of humidity in that place, but most in women, as men have
the mouth of the bladder in that place, where the urine is contained, of
which the hair in the breast is engendered, and especially that about
the navel. But of women in general, it is said, that the humidity of the
bladder of the matrix, or womb, is joined and meeteth in that lower
secret place, and therefore is dissolved and separated in that place
into vapours and fumes, which are the cause of hair. And the like doth
happen in other places, as in the hair under the arms.

Q. Why have not women beards? A. Because they want heat; which is the
case with some effeminate men, who are beardless from the same cause, to
have complexions like women.

Q. Why doth the hair grow on those that are hanged? A. Because their
bodies are exposed to the sun, which, by its heat doth dissolve all
moisture into the fume or vapour of which the hair doth grow.

Q. Why is the hair of the beard thicker and grosser than elsewhere; and
the more men are shaven, the harder and thicker it groweth? A. Because
by so much as the humours or vapours of a liquid are dissolved and taken
away, so much the more doth the humour remaining draw to the same; and
therefore the more the hair is shaven, the thicker the humours gather
which engender the hair, and cause it to wax hard.

Q. Why are women smooth and fairer than men? A. Because in women much of
the humidity and superfluity, which are the matter and cause of the hair
of the body, is expelled with their monthly terms; which superfluity,
remaining in men, through vapours passes into hair.

Q. Why doth man, above all other creatures, wax hoary and gray? A.
Because man hath the hottest heart of all living creatures; and
therefore, nature being most wise, lest a man should be suffocated
through the heat of his heart, hath placed the heart, which is most hot,
under the brain, which is most cold; to the end that the heat of the
heart may be tempered by the coldness of the brain; and contrariwise,
that the coldness of the brain may be qualified by the heat of the
heart; and thereby there might be a temperature in both. A proof of this
is, that of all living creatures man hath the worst breath when he comes
to full age. Furthermore, man doth consume nearly half his time in
sleep, which doth proceed from the great excess of coldness and moisture
in the brain, and from his wanting natural heat to digest and consume
that moisture, which heat he hath in his youth, and therefore, in that
age is not gray, but in old age, when heat faileth; because then the
vapours ascending from the stomach remain undigested and unconsumed for
want of natural heat, and thus putrefy, on which putrefaction of humours
that the whiteness doth follow, which is called grayness or hoariness.
Whereby it doth appear, that hoariness is nothing but a whiteness of
hair, caused by a putrefaction of the humours about the roots of the
hair, through the want of natural heat in old age. Sometimes all
grayness is caused by the naughtiness of the complexion, which may
happen in youth: sometimes through over great fear and care as appeareth
in merchants, sailors and thieves.

Q. Why doth red hair grow white sooner than hair of any other colour? A.
Because redness is an infirmity of the hair; for it is engendered of a
weak and infirm matter, that is, of matter corrupted with the flowers of
the woman; and therefore it waxes white sooner than any other colour.

Q. Why do wolves grow grisly? A. To understand this question, note the
difference between grayness and grisliness; grayness is caused through
defect of natural heat, but grisliness through devouring and heat. The
wolf being a devouring beast, he eateth gluttonously without chewing,
and enough at once for three days; in consequence of which, gross
vapours engendered in the wolf's body, which cause grisliness. Grayness
and grisliness have this difference; grayness is only in the head, but
grisliness all over the body.

Q. Why do horses grow grisly and gray? A. Because they are for the most
part in the sun, and heat naturally causes putrefaction; therefore the
matter of hair doth putrefy, and in consequence they are quickly peeled.

Q. Why do men get bald, and trees let fall their leaves in winter? A.
The want of moisture is the cause in both, which is proved by a man's
becoming bald through venery, because by that he lets forth his natural
humidity and heat; and by that excess in carnal pleasure the moisture is
consumed which is the nutriment of the hair. Thus, eunuchs and women do
not grow bald, because they do not part from this moisture; and
therefore eunuchs are of the complexion of women.

Q. Why are not women bald? A. Because they are cold and moist, which are
the causes that the hair remaineth; for moistness doth give nutriment to
the hair, and coldness doth bind the pores.

Q. Why are not blind men naturally bald? A. Because the eye hath
moisture in it, and that moisture which should pass through by the
substance of the eyes, doth become a sufficient nutriment for the hair
and therefore they are seldom bald.

Q. Why doth the hair stand on end when men are afraid? A. Because in
time of fear the heat doth go from the outward parts of the body into
the inward to help the heart, and so the pores in which the hair is
fastened are shut up, after which stopping and shutting up of the pores,
the standing up of the hair doth follow.



_Of the Head._

Q. Why is a man's head round? A. Because it contains in it the moistest
parts of the living creature: and also that the brain may be defended
thereby, as with a shield.

Q. Why is the head not absolutely long but somewhat round? A. To the end
that the three creeks and cells of the brain might the better be
distinguished; that is, the fancy in the forehead, the discoursing or
reasonable part in the middle, and memory in the hinder-most part.

Q. Why doth a man lift up his head towards the heavens when he doth
imagine? A. Because the imagination is in the fore part of the head or
brain, and therefore it lifteth up itself, that the creeks or cells of
the imagination may be opened, and that the spirits which help the
imagination, and are fit for that purpose, having their concourse
thither, may help the imagination.

Q. Why doth a man, when he museth or thinketh of things past, look
towards the earth? A. Because the cell or creek which is behind, is the
creek or chamber of the memory; and therefore, that looketh towards
heaven when the head is bowed down, and so the cell is open, to the end
that the spirits which perfect the memory should enter it.

Q. Why is not the head fleshy, like other parts of the body? A. Because
the head would be too heavy, and would not stand steadily. Also, a head
loaded with flesh, betokens an evil complexion.

Q. Why is the head subject to aches and griefs? A. By reason that evil
humours, which proceed from the stomach, ascend up to the head and
disturb the brain, and so cause pain in the head; sometimes it proceeds
from overmuch filling the stomach, because two great sinews pass from
the brain to the mouth of the stomach, and therefore these two parts do
always suffer grief together.

Q. Why have women the headache oftener than men? A. By reason of their
monthly terms, which men are not troubled with, and by which a moist,
unclean and venomous fume is produced, that seeks passage upwards, and
so causes the headache.

Q. Why is the brain white? A. 1. Because it is cold, and coldness is the
mother of white. 2. Because it may receive the similitude and likeness
of all colours, which the white colour can best do, because it is most
simple.

Q. Why are all the senses in the head? A. Because the brain is there, on
which all the senses depend, and are directed by it; and, consequently,
it maketh all the spirits to feel, and governeth all the membranes.

Q. Why cannot a person escape death if the brain or heart be hurt? A.
Because the brain and heart are the two principal parts which concern
life; and, therefore, if they be hurt, there is no remedy left for cure.

Q. Why is the brain moist? A. Because it may easily receive an
impression, which moisture can best do, as it appeareth in wax, which
doth easily receive the print of the seal when soft.

Q. Why is the brain cold? A. 1. Because that by this coldness it may
clear the understanding of man and make it subtle. 2. That by the
coldness of the brain, the heat of the heart may be tempered.



_Of the Eyes._

Q. Why have you one nose and two eyes? A. Because light is more
necessary to us than smelling; and therefore it doth proceed from the
goodness of Nature, that if we receive any hurt or loss of one eye, the
other should remain.

Q. Why have children great eyes in their youth, which become small as
they grow up? A. It proceeds from the want of fire, and from the
assemblage and meeting together of the light and humour; the eyes, being
lightened by the sun, which doth lighten the easy humour thereof and
purge them: and, in the absence of the sun, those humours become dark
and black, and the sight not so good.

Q. Why does the blueish grey eye see badly in the day-time and well in
the night? A. Because greyness is light and shining in itself, and the
spirits with which we see are weakened in the day-time and strengthened
in the night.

Q. Why are men's eyes of diverse colours? A. By reason of diversity of
humours. The eye hath four coverings and three humours. The first
covering is called consolidative, which is the outermost, strong and
fat. The second is called a horny skin or covering, of the likeness of
a horn; which is a clear covering. The third, uvea, of the likeness of a
black grape. The fourth is called a cobweb. The first humour is called
_albuginous_, from its likeness unto the white of an egg. The second
glarial; that is, clear, like unto crystalline. The third vitreous, that
is, clear as glass. And the diversity of humours causeth the diversity
of the eyes.

Q. Why are men that have but one eye, good archers? and why do good
archers commonly shut one? And why do such as behold the stars look
through a trunk with one eye? A. This matter is handled in the
perspective arts; and the reason is, as it doth appear in _The Book of
Causes_, because that every virtue and strength united and knit
together, is stronger than when dispersed and scattered. Therefore, all
the force of seeing dispersed in two eyes, the one being shut, is
gathered into the other, and so the light is fortified in him; and by
consequence he doth see better and more certainly with one eye being
shut, than when both are open.

Q. Why do those that drink and laugh much, shed most tears? A. Because
that while they drink and laugh without measure the air which is drawn
in doth not pass out through the windpipe, and so with force is
directed and sent to the eyes, and by their pores passing out, doth
expel the humours of the eyes; which humour being expelled, brings
tears.

Q. Why do such as weep much, urine but little? A. Because the radical
humidity of a tear and of urine are of one and the same nature, and,
therefore, where weeping doth increase, urine diminishes. And that they
are of one nature is plain to the taste, because they are both salt.

Q. Why do some that have clear eyes see nothing? A. By reason of the
oppilation and naughtiness of the sinews with which we see; for the
temples being destroyed, the strength of the light cannot be carried
from the brain to the eye.

Q. Why is the eye clear and smooth like glass? A. 1. Because the things
which may be seen are better beaten back from a smooth thing than
otherwise, that thereby the sight should strengthen. 2. Because the eye
is moist above all parts of the body, and of a waterish nature; and as
the water is clear and smooth, so likewise is the eye.

Q. Why do men and beasts who have their eyes deep in their head best see
far off? A. Because the force and power by which we see is dispersed in
them, and both go directly to the thing which is seen. Thus, when a man
doth stand in a deep ditch or well, he doth see in the daytime the stars
of the firmament; because then the power of the night and of the beams
are not scattered.

Q. Wherefore do those men who have eyes far out in their head not see
far distant? A. Because the beams of the sight which pass from the eye,
are scattered on every side, and go not directly unto the thing that is
seen, and therefore the sight is weakened.

Q. Why are so many beasts born blind, as lions' whelps and dogs' whelps.
A. Because such beasts are not yet of perfect ripeness and maturity, and
the course of nutriment doth not work in them. Thus the swallow, whose
eyes, if they were taken out when they are young in their nest, would
grow in again. And this is the case in many beasts who are brought forth
before their time as it were dead, as bear's whelps.

Q. Why do the eyes of a woman that hath her flowers, stain new glass?
And why doth a basilisk kill a man with his sight? A. When the flowers
do run from a woman, then a most venomous air is distilled from them,
which doth ascend into a woman's head; and she, having pain in her head,
doth wrap it up with a cloth or handkerchief; and because the eyes are
full of insensible holes, which are called pores, there the air seeketh
a passage, and infects the eyes, which are full of blood. The eyes also
appear dropping and full of tears, by reason of the evil vapour that is
in them; and these vapours are incorporated and multiplied till they
come to the glass before them; and by reason that such a glass is round,
clear and smooth, it doth easily receive that which is unclean. 2. The
basilisk is a very venomous and infectious animal, and there pass from
his eyes vapours which are multiplied upon the thing which is seen by
him, and even unto the eye of man; the which venomous vapours or humours
entering into the body, do infect him, and so in the end the man dieth.
And this is also the reason why the basilisk, looking upon a shield
perfectly well made with fast clammy pitch, or any hard smooth thing,
doth kill itself, because the humours are beaten back from the hard
smooth thing unto the basilisk, by which beating back he is killed.

Q. Why is the sparkling in cats' eyes and wolves' eyes seen in the dark
and not in the light? A. Because that the greater light doth darken the
lesser; and therefore, in a greater light the sparkling cannot be seen;
but the greater the darkness, the easier it is seen, and is more strong
and shining.

Q. Why is the sight recreated and refreshed by a green colour? A.
Because green doth merely move the sight, and therefore doth comfort it;
but this doth not, in black or white colours, because these colours do
vehemently stir and alter the organ and instrument of the sight, and
therefore make the greater violence; and by how much the more violent
the thing is which is felt or seen the more it doth destroy and weaken
the sense.



_Of the Nose._

Q. Why doth the nose stand out further than any other part of the body.
A. 1. Because the nose is, as it were, the sink of the brain, by which
the phlegm of the brain is purged; and therefore it doth stand forth,
lest the other parts should be defiled. 2. Because the nose is the
beauty of the face, and doth smell.

Q. Why hath a man the worst smell of all creatures? A. Because man hath
most brains of all creatures; and, therefore, by exceeding coldness and
moisture, the brain wanteth a good disposition, and by consequence, the
smelling instrument is not good, yea, some men have no smell.

Q. Why have vultures and cormorants a keen smell? A. Because they have a
very dry brain; and, therefore, the air carrying the smell, is not
hindered by the humidity of the brain, but doth presently touch its
instrument; and, therefore, vultures, tigers and other ravenous beasts,
have been known to come five hundred miles after dead bodies.

Q. Why did nature make the nostrils? A. 1. Because the mouth being shut
we draw breath in by the nostrils, to refresh the heart. 2. Because the
air which proceedeth from the mouth doth savour badly, because of the
vapours which rise from the stomach, but that which we breathe from the
nose is not noisome. 3. Because the phlegm which doth proceed from the
brain is purged by them.

Q. Why do men sneeze? A. That the expulsive virtue and power of the
sight should thereby be purged, and the brain also from superfluities;
because, as the lungs are purged by coughing, so is the sight and brain
by sneezing; and therefore physicians give sneezing medicaments to purge
the brain; and thus it is, such sick persons as cannot sneeze, die
quickly, because it is a sign their brain is wholly stuffed with evil
humours, which cannot be purged.

Q. Why do such as are apoplectic sneeze, that is, such as are subject
easily to bleed? A. Because the passages, or ventricles of the brain are
stopped, and if they could sneeze, their apoplexy would be loosed.

Q. Why does the heat of the sun provoke sneezing, and not the heat of
the fire? A. Because the heat of the sun doth dissolve, but not consume,
and therefore the vapour dissolved is expelled by sneezing; but the heat
of the fire doth dissolve and consume, and therefore doth rather hinder
sneezing than provoke it.



_Of the Ears._

Q. Why do beasts move their ears, and not men? A. Because there is a
certain muscle near the under jaw which doth cause motion in the ear;
and therefore, that muscle being extended and stretched, men do not move
their ears, as it hath been seen in divers men; but all beasts do use
that muscle or fleshy sinew, and therefore do move their ears.

Q. Why is rain prognosticated by the pricking up of asses' ears? A.
Because the ass is of a melancholic constitution, and the approach of
rain produceth that effect on such a constitution. In the time of rain
all beasts prick up their ears, but the ass before it comes.

Q. Why have some animals no ears? A. Nature giveth unto everything that
which is fit for it, but if she had given birds ears, their flying would
have been hindered by them. Likewise fish want ears, because they would
hinder their swimming, and have only certain little holes through which
they hear.

Q. Why have bats ears, although of the bird kind? A. Because they are
partly birds in nature, in that they fly, by reason whereof they have
wings; and partly they are hairy and seem to be of the nature of mice,
therefore nature hath given them ears.

Q. Why have men only round ears? A. Because the shape of the whole and
of the parts should be proportionable, and especially in all things of
one nature; for as a drop of water is round, so the whole water: and so,
because a man's head is round, the ears incline towards the same figure;
but the heads of beasts are somewhat long, and so the ears are drawn
into length likewise.

Q. Why hath nature given all living creatures ears? A. 1. Because with
them they should hear. 2. Because by the ear choleric superfluity is
purged; for as the head is purged of phlegmatic superfluity by the nose,
so from choleric, by the ears.



_Of the Mouth._

Q. Why hath the mouth lips to compass it? A. Because the lips cover and
defend the teeth; for it would be unseemly if the teeth were always
seen. Also, the teeth being of a cold nature, would be soon hurt if they
were not covered with lips.

Q. Why has a man two eyes and but one mouth? A. Because a man should
speak but little, and hear and see much. And by hearing and the light we
see difference of things.

Q. Why hath a man a mouth? A. 1. Because the mouth is the gate and door
of the stomach. 2. Because the meat is chewed in the mouth, and prepared
and made ready for the first digestion. 3. Because the air drawn into
the hollow of the mouth for the refreshing of the heart, is made pure
and subtle.

Q. Why are the lips moveable? A. For the purpose of forming the voice
and words which cannot be perfectly done without them. For as without
_a, b, c_, there is no writing, so without the lips no voice can well be
formed.

Q. What causes men to yawn or gape? A. It proceeds from the thick fume
and vapours that fill the jaws; by the expulsion of which is caused the
stretching out and expansion of the jaws, and opening of the mouth.

Q. Why doth a man gape when he seeth another do the same? A. It proceeds
from the imagination. And this is proved by the similitude of the ass,
who by reason of his melancholy, doth retain his superfluity for a long
time, and would neither eat nor piss unless he should hear another
doing the like.



_Of the Teeth._

Q. Why do the teeth only, amongst all ether bones, experience the sense
of feeling? A. That they may discern heat and cold, that hurt them,
which other bones need not.

Q. Why have men more teeth than women? A. By reason of the abundance of
heat and cold which is more in men than in women.

Q. Why do the teeth grow to the end of our life, and not the other
bones? A. Because otherwise they would be consumed with chewing and
grinding.

Q. Why do the teeth only come again when they fall, or be taken out, and
other bones being taken away, grow no more? A. Because other bones are
engendered of the humidity which is called radical, and so they breed in
the womb of the mother, but the teeth are engendered of nutritive
humidity, which is renewed and increased from day to day.

Q. Why do the fore-teeth fall in youth, and grow again, and not the
cheek teeth? A. From the defect of matter, and from the figure; because
the fore-teeth are sharp, and the others broad. Also, it is the office
of the fore-teeth to cut the meat, and therefore they are sharp; and
the office of the others to chew the meat, and therefore they are broad
in fashion, which is fittest for that purpose.

Q. Why do the fore-teeth grow soonest? A. Because we want them sooner in
cutting than the others in chewing.

Q. Why do the teeth grow black in human creatures in their old age? A.
It is occasioned by the corruption of the meat, and the corruption of
phlegm with a choleric humour.

Q. Why are colts' teeth yellow, and of the colour of saffron, when they
are young, and become white when they grow up? A. Because horses have
abundance of watery humours in them, which in their youth are digested
and converted into grossness; but in old age heat diminishes, and the
watery humours remain, whose proper colour is white.

Q. Why did nature give living creatures teeth? A. To some to fight with,
and for defence of their lives, as unto wolves and bears, unto some to
eat with, as unto horses, unto some for the forming of the voices, as
unto men.

Q. Why do horned beasts want their upper teeth? A. Horns and teeth are
caused by the same matter, that is, nutrimental humidity, and therefore
the matter which passeth into the horns turneth not into teeth,
consequently they want the upper teeth. And such beasts cannot chew
well; therefore, to supply the want of teeth, they have two stomachs,
from whence it returns and they chew it again, then it goes into the
other to be digested.

Q. Why are some creatures brought forth with teeth, as kids and lambs;
and some without, as men? A. Nature doth not want in necessary things,
nor abound in things superfluous; and therefore, because these beasts,
not long after they are fallen, do need teeth, they are fallen with
teeth; but men, being nourished by their mother, for a long time do not
stand in need of teeth.



_Of the Tongue._

Q. Why is the tongue full of pores? A. Because the tongue is the means
whereby which we taste; and through the mouth, in the pores of the
tongue, doth proceed the sense of tasting. Again, it is observed, that
frothy spittle is sent into the mouth by the tongue from the lungs,
moistening the meat and making it ready for digestion.

Q. Why do the tongues of such as are sick of agues judge all things
bitter? A. Because the stomachs of such persons are filled with
choleric humours; and choler is very bitter, as appeareth by the gall;
therefore this bitter fume doth infect their tongues; and so the tongue,
being full of these tastes, doth judge everything bitter.

Q. Why doth the tongue water when we hear sour and sharp things spoken
of? A. Because the imaginative virtue or power is of greater force than
the power or faculty of tasting; and when we imagine a taste, we
conceive the power of tasting as a swan; there is nothing felt by the
taste, but by means of the spittle the tongue doth water.

Q. Why do some persons stammer and lisp? A. Sometimes through the
moistness of the tongue and brain, as in children, who cannot speak
plainly nor pronounce many letters. Sometimes it happeneth by reason of
the shrinking of certain sinews which go to the tongue, which are
corrupted with phlegm.

Q. Why are the tongues of serpents and mad dogs venomous? A. Because of
the malignity and tumosity of the venomous humour which predominates in
them.

Q. Why is a dog's tongue good for medicine, and a horse's tongue
pestiferous? A. By reason of some secret property, or that the tongue of
a dog is full of pores, and so doth draw and take away the viscosity of
the wound. It is observed that a dog hath some humour in his tongue,
with which, by licking he doth heal; but the contrary effect is the lick
of a horse's tongue.

Q. Why is spittle white? A. By reason of the continual moving of the
tongue, whereof heat is engendered, which doth make this superfluity
white; as seen in the froth of water.

Q. Why is spittle unsavoury and without taste? A. If it had a certain
determinate taste, then the tongue would not taste at all, but only have
the taste of spittle, and could not distinguish others.

Q. Why doth the spittle of one that is fasting heal an imposthume? A.
Because it is well digested and made subtle.

Q. Why do some abound in spittle more than others? A. This doth proceed
of a phlegmatic complexion, which doth predominate in them; and such are
liable to a quotidian ague, which ariseth from the predominance of
phlegm; the contrary in those that spit little, because heat abounds in
them, which consumes the humidity of the spittle; and so the defect of
spittle is a sign of fever.

Q. Why is the spittle of a man that is fasting more subtle than of one
that is full? A. Because the spittle is without the viscosity of meat,
which is wont to make the spittle of one who is full, gross and thick.

Q. From whence proceeds the spittle of a man? A. From the froth of the
lungs, which according to the physicians, is the seat of the phlegm.

Q. Why are beasts when going together for generation very full of froth
and foam? A. Because then the lights and heart are in greater motion of
lust; therefore there is engendered in them much frothy matter.

Q. Why have not birds spittle? A. Because they have very dry lungs.

Q. Why doth the tongue sometimes lose the use of speaking? A. It is
occasioned by a palsy or apoplexy, which is a sudden effusion of blood,
and by gross humours; and sometimes also by infection of _spiritus
animates_ in the middle cell of the brain which hinders the spirits from
being carried to the tongue.



_Of the Roof of the Mouth._

Q. Why are fruits, before they are ripe, of a bitter and sour relish,
and afterward sweet? A. A sour relish or taste proceeds from coldness
and want of heat in gross and thick humidity; but a sweet taste is
produced by sufficient heat; therefore in the ripe fruit humidity is
subtle through the heat of the sun, and such fruit is commonly sweet;
but before it is ripe, as humidity is gross or subtle for want of heat,
the fruit is bitter or sour.

Q. Why are we better delighted with sweet tastes than with bitter or any
other? A. Because a sweet thing is hot and moist, and through its heat
dissolves and consumes superfluous humidities, and by this humidity
immundicity is washed away; but a sharp, eager taste, by reason of the
cold which predominates in it, doth bind overmuch, and prick and offend
the parts of the body in purging, and therefore we do not delight in
that taste.

Q. Why doth a sharp taste, as that of vinegar, provoke appetite rather
than any other? A. Because it is cold, and doth cool. For it is the
nature of cold to desire to draw, and therefore it is the cause of
appetite.

Q. Why do we draw in more air than we breathe out? A. Because much air
is drawn in that is converted into nutriment, and with the vital spirits
is contained in the lungs. Therefore a beast is not suffocated as long
as it receives air with its lungs, in which some part of the air
remaineth also.

Q. Why doth the air seem to be expelled and put forth, seeing the air is
invisible, by reason of its variety and thinness? A. Because the air
which is received in us, is mingled with vapours and fumes from the
heart, by reason whereof it is made thick, and so is seen. And this is
proved by experience, because that in winter, we see our breath, for the
coldness of the air doth bind the air mixed with fume, and so it is
thickened and made gross, and by consequence is seen.

Q. Why have some persons stinking breath? A. Because of the evil fumes
that arise from the stomach. And sometimes it doth proceed from the
corruption of the airy parts of the body, as the lungs. The breath of
lepers is so infected that it would poison birds if near them, because
the inward parts are very corrupt.

Q. Why are lepers hoarse? A. Because the vocal instruments are
corrupted, that is, the lights.

Q. Why do persons become hoarse? A. Because of the rheum descending from
the brain, filling the conduit of the lights; and sometimes through
imposthumes of the throat, or rheum gathering in the neck.

Q. Why have the females of all living creatures the shrillest voices,
the crow only excepted, and a woman a shriller and smaller voice than a
man? A. By reason of the composition of the veins and vocal arteries the
voice is formed, as appears by this similitude, that a small pipe
sounds shriller than a great. Also in women, because the passage where
the voice is formed is made narrow and strait, by reason of cold, it
being the nature of cold to bind; but in men, the passage is open and
wider through heat, because it is the property of heat to open and
dissolve. It proceedeth in women through the moistness of the lungs, and
weakness of the heat. Young and diseased men have sharp and shrill
voices from the same cause.

Q. Why doth the voice change in men at fourteen, and in women at twelve;
in men they begin to yield seed, in women when their breasts begin to
grow? A. Because then the beginning of the voice is slackened and
loosened; and this is proved by the similitude of the string of an
instrument let down or loosened, which gives a great sound, and also
because creatures that are gelded, as eunuchs, capons., etc., have
softer and slenderer voices than others, by the want of their stones.

Q. Why do small birds sing more and louder than great ones, as appears
in the lark and nightingale? A. Because the spirits of small birds are
subtle and soft, and the organ conduit strait, as appeareth in a pipe;
therefore their notes following easily at desire, they sing very soft.

Q. Why do bees, wasps, locusts and many other such like insects, make a
noise, seeing they have no lungs, nor instruments of music? A. Because
in them there is a certain small skin, which, when struck by the air,
causeth a sound.

Q. Why do not fish make a sound? A. Because they have no lungs, but only
gills, nor yet a heart, and therefore they need not the drawing in of
the air, and by consequence they make no noise, because a voice is a
percussion of the air which is drawing.



_Of the Neck._

Q. Why hath a living creature a neck? A. Because the neck is the
supporter of the head, and therefore the neck is in the middle between
the head and the body, to the intent that by it, and by its sinews,
motion and sense of the body might be conveyed through all the body; and
that by means of the neck, the heart, which is very hot, might be
separated from the brain.

Q. Why do some creatures want necks, as serpents and fishes? A. Because
they want hearts, and therefore want that assistance which we have
spoken of; or else they have a neck in some inward part of them, which
is not distinguished outwardly.

Q. Why is the neck full of bones and joints? A. That it may bear and
sustain the head the better. Also, because the back bone is joined to
the brain in the neck, and from thence it receives marrow, which is of
the substance of the brain.

Q. Why have some creatures long necks, as cranes, storks and such like?
A. Because such birds seek their food at the bottom of waters. And some
creatures have short necks, as sparrows, hawks, etc., because such are
ravenous, and therefore for strength have short necks, as appeareth in
the ox, who has a short neck and strong.

Q. Why is the neck hollow, and especially before, about the tongue? A.
Because there are two passages, whereof the one doth carry the meat to
the nutritive instrument, or stomach and liver, which is called by the
Greeks _Aesophagus_; and the other is the windpipe.

Q. Why is the artery made with rings and circle? A. The better to bow
and give a good sounding.



_Of the Shoulders and Arms._

Q. Why hath a man shoulders and arms? A. To lift and carry burdens.

Q. Why are the arms round? A. For the swifter and speedier work.

Q. Why are the arms thick? A. That they may be strong to lift and bear
burdens, and thrust and give a strong blow; so their bones are thick,
because they contain much marrow, or they would be easily corrupted and
injured.

Q. Why do the arms become small and slender in some diseases, as in mad
men, and such as are sick of the dropsy? A. Because all the parts of the
body do suffer the one with the other; and therefore one member being in
grief, all the humours do concur and run thicker to give succour and
help to the aforesaid grief.

Q. Why have brute beasts no arms? A. Their fore feet are instead of
arms, and in their place.



_Of the Hands._

Q. For what use hath a man hands, and an ape also, like unto a man? A.
The hand is an instrument a man doth especially make use of, because
many things are done by the hands, and not by any other part.

Q. Why are some men ambo-dexter, that is, they use the left hand as the
right? A. By reason of the great heat of the heart, and for the hot
bowing of the same, for it is that which makes a man as nimble of the
left hand as of the right.

Q. Why are the fingers full of joints? A. To be more fit and apt to
receive and keep what is put in them.

Q. Why hath every finger three joints, and the thumb but two? A. The
thumb hath three, but the third is joined to the arm, therefore is
stronger than the other fingers; and is called pollex or polico, that
is, to excel in strength.

Q. Why are the fingers of the right hand nimbler than the fingers of the
left? A. It proceedeth from the heat that predominates in those parts,
and causeth great agility.



_Of the Nails._

Q. From whence do nails proceed? A. Of the tumosity and humours, which
are resolved and go into the extremities of the fingers; and they are
dried through the power of the external air, and brought to the hardness
of horn.

Q. Why do the nails of old men grow black and pale? A. Because the heat
of the heart decaying causeth their beauty to decay also.

Q. Why are men judged to be good or evil complexioned by the colour of
the nails? A. Because they give witness of the goodness or badness of
their heart, and therefore of the complexion, for if they be somewhat
red, they betoken choler well tempered; but if they be yellowish or
black, they signify melancholy.

Q. Why do white spots appear in the nails? A. Through mixture of phlegm
with nutriment.



_Of the Paps and Dugs._

Q. Why are the paps placed upon the breasts? A. Because the breast is
the seat of the heart, which is most hot; and therefore the paps grow
there, to the end that the menses being conveyed thither as being near
the heat of the heart, should the sooner be digested, perfected and
converted with the matter and substance of the milk.

Q. Why are the paps below the breasts in beasts, and above the breast in
women? A. Because woman goes upright, and has two legs only; and
therefore if her paps were below her breasts, they would hinder her
going; but beasts having four feet prevents that inconveniency.

Q. Whether are great, small or middle-sized paps best for children to
suck? A. In great ones the heat is dispersed, there is no good
digestion of the milk; but in small ones the power and force is strong,
because a virtue united is strongest; and by consequence there is a good
digestion for the milk.

Q. Why have not men as great paps and breasts as women? A. Because men
have not monthly terms, and therefore have no vessel deputed for them.

Q. Why do the paps of young women begin to grow about thirteen or
fifteen years of age? A. Because then the flowers have no course to the
teats, by which the young one is nourished, but follow their ordinary
course and therefore wax soft.

Q. Why hath a woman who is with child of a boy, the right pap harder
than the left? A. Because the male child is conceived in the right side
of the mother; and therefore the flowers do run to the right pap, and
make it hard.

Q. Why doth it show weakness of the child, when the milk doth drop out
of the paps before the woman is delivered? A. Because the milk is the
proper nutriment of the child in the womb of its mother, therefore if
the milk run out, it is a token that the child is not nourished, and
consequently is weak.

Q. Why do the hardness of the paps betoken the health of the child in
the womb? A. Because the flowers are converted into milk, and thereby
strength is signified.

Q. Why are women's paps hard when they be with child, and soft at other
times? A. Because they swell then, and are puffed, and the great
moisture which proceeds from the flowers doth run into the paps, which
at other seasons remaineth in the matrix and womb, and is expelled by
the place deputed for that end.

Q. By what means doth the milk of the paps come to the matrix or womb?
A. There is a certain knitting and coupling of the paps with the womb,
and there are certain veins which the midwives do cut in the time of the
birth of the child, and by those veins the milk flows in at the navel of
the child, and so it receives nourishment by the navel.

Q. Why is it a sign of a male child in the womb when the milk that
runneth out of a woman's breast is thick, and not much, and of a female
when it is thin? A. Because a woman that goeth with a boy hath a great
heat in her, which doth perfect the milk and make it thick; but she who
goes with a girl hath not so much heat, and therefore the milk is
undigested, imperfect, watery and thin, and will swim above the water if
it be put into it.

Q. Why is the milk white, seeing the flowers are red, of which it is
engendered? A. Because blood which is well purged and concocted becomes
white, as appeareth in flesh whose proper colour is white, and being
boiled, is white. Also, because every humour which is engendered of the
body, is made like unto that part in colour where it is engendered as
near as it can be; but because the flesh of the paps is white, therefore
the colour of the milk is white.

Q. Why doth a cow give milk more abundantly than other beasts? A.
Because she is a great eating beast, where there is much monthly
superfluity engendered, there is much milk; because it is nothing else
but the blood purged and tried.

Q. Why is not milk wholesome? A. 1. Because it curdeth in the stomach,
whereof an evil breath is bred. 2. Because the milk doth grow sour in
the stomach, where evil humours are bred, and infect the breath.

Q. Why is milk bad for such as have the headache? A. Because it is
easily turned into great fumosities, and hath much terrestrial substance
in it, the which ascending, doth cause the headache.

Q. Why is milk fit nutriment for infants? A. Because it is a natural and
usual food, and they were nourished by the same in the womb.

Q. Why are the white-meats made of a newly milked cow good? A. Because
milk at that time is very springy, expels fumosities, and, as it were,
purges at that time.

Q. Why is the milk naught for the child, if the woman giving suck uses
carnal copulation? A. Because in time of carnal copulation, the best
part of the milk goes to the seed vessels, and to the womb, and the
worst remain in the paps, which hurts the child.

Q. Why do physicians forbid the eating of fish and milk at the same
time? A. Because they produce a leprosy, and because they are
phlegmatic.

Q. Why have not birds and fish milk and paps? A. Because paps would
hinder the flight of birds. And although fish have neither paps nor
milk, the females cast much spawn, which the male touches with a small
gut, and causes their kind to continue in succession.



_Of the Back._

Q. Why have beasts a back? A. 1. Because the back is the way and mien of
the body from which are extended and spread throughout, all the sinews
of the backbone. 2. Because it should be a guard and defence for the
soft parts of the body, as for the stomach, liver, lights and such like.
3. Because it is the foundation of all the bones, as the ribs, fastened
to the back bone.

Q. Why hath the back bone so many joints or knots, called _spondyli_? A.
Because the moving and bending it, without such joints, could not be
done; and therefore they are wrong who say that elephants have no such
joints, for without them they could not move.

Q. Why do fish die after their back bones are broken? A. Because in fish
the back bone is instead of the heart; now the heart is the first thing
that lives and the last that dies; and when that bone is broken, fish
can live no longer.

Q. Why doth a man die soon after the marrow is hurt or perished? A.
Because the marrow proceeds from the brain, which is the principal part
of a man.

Q. Why have some men the piles? A. Those men are cold and melancholy,
which melancholy first passes to the spleen, its proper seat, but there
cannot be retained, for the abundancy of blood; for which reason it is
conveyed to the back bone, where there are certain veins which terminate
in the back, and receive the blood. When those veins are full of the
melancholy blood, then the conduits of nature are opened, and the blood
issues out once a month, like women's terms. Those men who have this
course of blood, are kept from many infirmities, such as dropsy, plague,
etc.

Q. Why are the Jews much subject to this disease? A. Because they eat
much phlegmatic and cold meats, which breed melancholy blood, which is
purged with the flux. Another reason is, motion causes heat and heat
digestion; but strict Jews neither move, labour nor converse much, which
breeds a coldness in them, and hinders digestion, causing melancholic
blood, which is by this means purged out.



_Of the Heart._

Q. Why are the lungs light, spongy and full of holes? A. That the air
may be received into them for cooling the heart, and expelling humours,
because the lungs are the fan of the heart; and as a pair of bellows is
raised up by taking in the air, and shrunk by blowing it out, so
likewise the lungs draw the air to cool the heart, and cast it out, lest
through too much air drawn in, the heart should be suffocated.

Q. Why is the flesh of the lungs white? A. Because they are in continual
motion.

Q. Why have those beasts only lungs that have hearts? A. Because the
lungs be no part for themselves, but for the heart, and therefore, it
were superfluous for those creatures to have lungs that have no hearts.

Q. Why do such creatures as have no lungs want a bladder? A. Because
such drink no water to make their meat digest and need no bladder for
urine; as appears in such birds as do not drink at all, viz., the falcon
and sparrow hawk.

Q. Why is the heart in the midst of the body? A. That it may import life
to all, parts of the body, and therefore it is compared to the sun,
which is placed in the midst of the planets, to give light to them all.

Q. Why only in men is the heart on the left side? A. To the end that the
heat of the heart may mitigate the coldness of the spleen; for the
spleen is the seat of melancholy, which is on the left side also.

Q. Why is the heart first engendered; for the heart doth live first and
die last? A. Because the heart is the beginning and original of life,
and without it no part can live. For of the seed retained in the matrix,
there is first engendered a little small skin, which compasses the seed;
whereof first the heart is made of the purest blood; then of blood not
so pure, the liver; and of thick and cold blood the marrow and brain.

Q. Why are beasts bold that have little hearts? A. Because in a little
heart the heat is well united and vehement, and the blood touching it,
doth quickly heat it and is speedily carried to the other parts of the
body, which give courage and boldness.

Q. Why are creatures with a large heart timorous, as the hare? A. The
heart is dispersed in such a one, and not able to heat the blood which
cometh to it; by which means fear is bred.

Q. How is it that the heart is continually moving? A. Because in it
there is a certain spirit which is more subtle than air, and by reason
of its thickness and rarefaction, seeks a larger space, filling the
hollow room of the heart; hence the dilating and opening of the heart,
and because the heart is earthly the thrusting and moving ceasing, its
parts are at rest, tending downwards. As a proof of this, take an acorn,
which, if put into the fire, the heat doth dissolve its humidity,
therefore occupies a greater space, so that the rind cannot contain it,
but puffs up, and throws it into the fire. The like of the heart.
Therefore the heart of a living creature is triangular, having its least
part towards its left side, and the greater towards the right; and doth
also open and shut in the least part, by which means it is in continual
motion; the first motion is called _diastole_, that is extending the
heart or breast; the other _systole_, that is, shutting of the heart;
and from these all the motions of the body proceed, and that of the
pulse which the physicians feel.

Q. How comes it that the flesh of the heart is so compact and knit
together? A. Because in thick compacted substances heat is commonly
received and united. And because the heart with its heat should moderate
the coldness of the brain, it is made of that fat flesh apt to keep a
strong heat.

Q. How comes the heart to be the hottest part of all living creatures?
A. It is so compacted as to receive the heat best, and because it should
mitigate the coldness of the brain.

Q. Why is the heart the beginning of life? A. It is plain that in it the
vital spirit is bred, which is the heat of life; and therefore the heart
having two receptacles, viz., the right and the left the right hath more
blood than spirits; which spirit is engendered to give life and vivify
the body.

Q. Why is the heart long and sharp like a pyramid? A. The round figure
hath an angle, therefore the heart is round, for fear any poison or
hurtful matter should be retained in it; and because that figure is
fittest for motion.

Q. How comes the blood chiefly to be in the heart? A. The blood in the
heart has its proper or efficient place, which some attribute to the
liver; and therefore the heart doth not receive blood from any other
parts but all other parts of it.

Q. How happens it that some creatures want a heart? A. Although they
have no heart, yet they have somewhat that answers for it, as appears in
eels and fish that have the back bone instead of the heart.

Q. Why does the heart beat in some creatures after the head is cut off,
as in birds and hens? A. Because the heart lives first and dies last,
and therefore beats longer than other parts.

Q. Why doth the heat of the heart sometimes fail of a sudden, and in
those who have the falling sickness? A. This proceeds from the defect of
the heart itself, and of certain small skins with which it is covered,
which, being infected and corrupted, the heart faileth on a sudden;
sometimes only by reason of the parts adjoining; and therefore, when any
venomous humour goes out of the stomach that turns the heart and parts
adjoining, that causeth this fainting.



_Of the Stomach._

Q. For what reason is the stomach large and wide? A. Because in it the
food is first concocted or digested as it were in a pot, to the end that
which is pure should be separated from that which is not; and therefore,
according to the quantity of food, the stomach is enlarged.

Q. How comes it that the stomach is round? A. Because if it had angles
and corners, food would remain in them and breed ill-humours, so that a
man would never want agues, which humours are evacuated and consumed,
and not hid in any such corners, by the roundness of the stomach.

Q. How comes the stomach to be full of sinews? A. Because the sinews can
be extended and enlarged, and so is the stomach when it is full; but
when empty it is drawn together, and therefore nature provides the
sinews.

Q. How comes the stomach to digest? A. Because of the heat which is in
it, and comes from the parts adjoining, that is, the liver and the
heart. For as we see in metals the heat of the fire takes away the rust
and dross from iron, the silver from tin, and gold from copper; so also
by digestion the pure is separated from the impure.

Q. For what reason doth the stomach join the liver? A. Because the liver
is very hot, and with its heat helps digestion, and provokes appetite.

Q. Why are we commonly cold after dinner? A. Because then the heat goes
to the stomach to further digestion, and so the other parts grow cold.

Q. Why is it hurtful to study soon after dinner? A. Because when the
heat labours to help the imagination in study, it ceases from digesting
the food, which remains undigested; therefore people should walk
sometimes after meals.

Q. How cometh the stomach slowly to digest meat? A. Because it swims in
the stomach. Now, the best digestion is in the bottom of the stomach,
because the fat descends not there; such as eat fat meat are very sleepy
by reason that digestion is hindered.

Q. Why is all the body wrong when the stomach is uneasy? A. Because the
stomach is knit with the brain, heart and liver, which are the principal
parts in man; and when it is not well, the others are indisposed.
Again, if the first digestion be hindered, the others are also
hindered; for in the first digestion is the beginning of the infirmity
in the stomach.

Q. Why are young men sooner hungry than old men? A. Young men do digest
for three causes; 1. For growing; 2. For restoring life; and 3. For
conservation of life. Also, young men are hot and dry, and therefore the
heat doth digest more, and by consequence they desire more.

Q. Why do physicians prescribe that men should eat when they have an
appetite? A. Because much hunger and emptiness will fill the stomach
with naughty rotten humours, which are drawn in instead of meat; for, if
we fast over night we have an appetite to meat, but none in the morning;
as then the stomach is filled with naughty humours, and especially its
mouth, which is no true filling, but a deceitful one. And, therefore,
after we have eaten a little, our stomach comes to us again; for the
first morsel, having made clean the mouth of the stomach, doth provoke
the appetite.

Q. Why do physicians prescribe that we should not eat too much at a
time, but little by little? A. Because when the stomach is full, the
meat doth swim in it, which is a dangerous thing. Another reason is,
that as very green wood doth put out the fire, so much meat chokes the
natural heat and puts it out; and therefore the best physic is to use
temperance in eating and drinking.

Q. Why do we desire change of meals according to the change of times; as
in winter, beef, mutton; in summer light meats, as veal, lamb, etc.? A.
Because the complexion of the body is altered and changed according to
the time of year. Another reason is, that this proceeds from the quality
of the season: because the cold in winter doth cause a better digestion.

Q. Why should not the meat we eat be as hot as pepper and ginger? A.
Because as hot meat doth inflame the blood, and dispose it to a leprosy,
so, on the contrary, meat too cold doth mortify and chill the blood. Our
meat should not be over sharp, because it wastes the constitution; too
much sauce doth burn the entrails, and inclineth to too often drinking;
raw meat doth the same; and over sweet meats to constipate and cling the
veins together.

Q. Why is it a good custom to eat cheese after dinner, and pears after
all meat? A. Because, by reason of its earthliness and thickness it
tendeth down towards the bottom of the stomach, and so put down the
meat; and the like of pears. Note, that new cheese is better than old,
and that old soft cheese is very bad, and causeth the headache and
stopping of the liver; and the older the worse. Whereof it is said that
cheese digesteth all things but itself.

Q. Why are nuts good after cheese, as the proverb is, "After fish nuts,
and after flesh cheese?" A. Because fish is of hard digestion, and doth
easily putrefy and corrupt; and nuts are a remedy against poison.

Q. Why is it unwholesome to wait long for one dish after another, and to
eat of divers kinds of meat? A. Because the first begins to digest when
the last is eaten, and so digestion is not equally made. But yet this
rule is to be noted; dishes light of digestion, as chickens, kids, veal,
soft eggs and such like, should be first eaten; because, if they should
be first served and eaten and were digested, they would hinder the
digestion of the others; and the light meats not digested would be
corrupted in the stomach and kept in the stomach violently, whereof
would follow belching, loathing, headache, bellyache and great thirst.
It is very hurtful too, at the same meal to drink wine and milk, because
they are productive of leprosy.

Q. Whether is meat or drink best for the stomach? A. Drink is sooner
digested than meat, because meat is of greater substance, and more
material than drink, and therefore meat is harder to digest.

Q. Why is it good to drink after dinner? A. Because the drink will make
the meat readier to digest. The stomach is like unto a pot which doth
boil meat, and therefore physicians do counsel to drink at meals.

Q. Why is it good to forbear a late supper? A. Because there is little
moving or stirring after supper, and so the meat is not sent down to the
bottom of the stomach, but remaineth undigested, and so breeds hurts;
therefore a light supper is best.



_Of the Blood._

Q. Why is it necessary that every living creature that hath blood have
also a liver? A. Because the blood is first made in the liver, its seat,
being drawn from the stomach by certain principal veins, and so
engendered.

Q. Why is the blood red? A. 1. It is like the part in which it is made,
viz., the liver, which is red. 2. It is likewise sweet, because it is
well digested and concocted; but if it hath a little earthly matter
mixed with it, that makes it somewhat salt.

Q. How is women's blood thicker than men's? Their coldness thickens,
binds, congeals, and joins together.

Q. How comes the blood to all parts of the body through the liver, and
by what means? A. Through the principal veins, as the veins of the head,
liver, etc., to nourish the body.



_Of the Urine._

Q. How doth the urine come into the bladder, seeing the bladder is shut?
A. Some say sweatings; others, by a small skin in the bladder, which
opens and lets in the urine. Urine is a certain and not deceitful
messenger of the health or infirmity of man. Men make white urine in the
morning, and before dinner red, but after dinner pale, and also after
supper.

Q. Why is it hurtful to drink much cold water? A. Because one contrary
doth hinder and expel another; water is very cold, and lying so in the
stomach, doth hinder digestion.

Q. Why is it unwholesome to drink new wine? A. 1. It cannot be digested;
therefore it causeth the belly to swell, and a kind of bloody flux. 2.
It hinders making water.

Q. Why do physicians forbid us to labour presently after dinner? A. 1.
Because the motion hinders the virtue and power of digestion. 2.
Because stirring immediately after dinner causes the different parts of
the body to draw the meat to them, which often breeds sickness. 3.
Because motion makes the food descend before it is digested. And after
supper it is good to walk a little, that the food may go to the bottom
of the stomach.

Q. Why is it good to walk after dinner? A. Because it makes a man well
disposed, and fortifies and strengthens the natural heat, causing the
superfluity of the stomach to descend.

Q. Why is it wholesome to vomit? A. It purges the stomach of all naughty
humours, expelling them, which would breed again if they should remain
in it; and purges the eyes and head, clearing the brain.

Q. How comes sleep to strengthen the stomach and the digestive faculty?
A. Because in sleep the heat draws inwards, and helps digestion; but
when we awake, the heat returns, and is dispersed through the body.



_Of the Gall and Spleen._

Q. How come living creatures to have a gall? A. Because choleric humours
are received into it, which through their acidity helps the guts to
expel superfluities; also it helps digestion.

Q. How comes the jaundice to proceed from the gall? A. The humour of the
gall is bluish and yellow; therefore when its pores are stopped the
humour cannot go into the sack thereof, but are mingled with the blood,
wandering throughout all the body and infecting the skin.

Q. Why hath a horse, mule, ass or cow a gall? A. Though these creatures
have no gall in one place, as in a purse or vessel, yet they have one
dispersed in small veins.

Q. How comes the spleen to be black? A. It is occasioned by terrestrial
and earthy matter of a black colour. According to physicians, the spleen
is the receptacle of melancholy, and that is black.

Q. Why is he lean who hath a large spleen? A. Because the spleen draws
much water to itself, which would turn to fat; therefore, men that have
a small spleen are fat.

Q. Why does the spleen cause men to laugh, as says Isidorus; "We laugh
with the spleen, we are angry with the gall, we are wise with the heart,
we love with the liver, we feel with the brain, and speak with the
lungs"? A. The reason is, the spleen draws much melancholy to it, being
its proper seat, the which melancholy proceeds from sadness, and is
there consumed; and the cause failing, the effect doth so likewise. And
by the same reason the gall causes anger, for choleric men are often
angry, because they have much gall.



_Of Carnal Copulation._

Q. Why do living creatures use carnal copulation? A. Because it is most
natural in them to get their like.

Q. What is carnal copulation? A. It is a mutual action of male and
female, with instruments ordained for that purpose to propagate their
kind.

Q. Why is this action good in those that use it lawfully and moderately?
A. Because it eases and lightens the body, clears the mind, comforts the
head and senses, and expels melancholy.

Q. Why is immoderate carnal copulation hurtful? A. Because it destroys
the sight, dries the body, and impairs the brain, often causes fevers
and shortens life also.

Q. Why doth carnal copulation injure melancholic or choleric men,
especially thin men? A. Because it dries the bones much which are
naturally so. On the contrary, it is good for the phlegmatic and
sanguine, because they abound with that substance which by nature, is
necessarily expelled.

Q. Why should not the act be used when the body is full? A. Because it
hinders digestion; and it is not good for a hungry belly, because it
weakens.

Q. Why is it not good soon after a bath? A. Because then the pores are
open, and the heat dispersed through the body: for after bathing, it
cools the body too much.

Q. Why is it not proper after vomiting or looseness? A. Because it is
dangerous to purge twice a day; for in this act the veins are purged,
and the guts by the vomit.

Q. Why is there such delight in the act of venery? A. Because this act
is such a contemptible thing in itself, that all creatures would
naturally abhor it were there no pleasure in it; and therefore nature
readily uses it, that all kinds of living things should be maintained
and kept up.

Q. Why do such as use it often take less delight in it than those who
come to it seldom? A. 1. The passages of the seed are over large and
wide; and therefore it makes no stay there, which would cause the
delight. 2. Through often evacuation there is little seed left, and
therefore no delight. 3. Because such, instead of seed there is cast out
blood, undigested and raw, or some other watery substance, which is not
hot, and therefore affords no delight.



_Of the Seed of Man and Beasts._

Q. How, and of what cometh the seed of man? A. Some philosophers and
physicians say, it is superfluous humours; others say, that the seed is
pure blood, flowing from the brain, concocted and whitened in the
testicles; but sweat, urine, spittle, phlegm, choler, and the like, and
blood dispersed throughout the whole body, come chiefly from the heart,
liver and brain, because those parts are greatly weakened by casting
seed; and therefore it appears that frequent carnal copulation is not
good.

Q. Why is a man's seed white, and a woman's red? A. It is white in men
by reason of great heat and quick digestion, because it is rarefied in
the testicles; but a woman's is red, because her terms corrupt the
undigested blood, and it hath its colour.

Q. How come females to have monthly courses? A. Because they are cold in
respect of men, and because all their nourishment cannot be converted
into blood, a great part of which turns to menses, which are monthly
expelled.

Q. For what reason do the menses not come down in females before the age
of thirteen? A. Because young women are hot, and digest all their
nourishment.

Q. For what reason do they leave off at about fifty? A. Because nature
is then so exhausted, they cannot expel them by reason of weakness.

Q. Why have not breeding women the menses? A. Because that then they
turn into milk, and into the nourishment of the child: for if a woman
with child have them, it is a sign that she will miscarry.

Q. Why are they termed _menstrua_, from the word _mensis_, a month? A.
Because it is a space of time that measures the moon, as she ends her
course in twenty-nine days, and fourteen hours.

Q. Why do they continue longer with some than others, as with some six
or seven, but commonly with all three days? A. The first are cold,
therefore they increase most in them, and consequently are longer
expelling; other women are hot, and therefore have fewer and are sooner
expelled.

Q. Are the menses which are expelled, and those by which the child is
engendered, all one? A. No, because the one are unclean, and unfit for
that purpose; but the other very pure and clear, therefore the fittest
for generation.

Q. Why have not women their menses all one and the same time, but some
in the new moon, some in the full, and others at the wane? A. From their
several complexions, and though all women (in respect of men) are
phlegmatic, yet some are more sanguine than others, some more choleric;
and as the moon hath her quarters, so have women their complexions; the
first sanguine, the second choleric.

Q. Why do women easily conceive after their menses? A. Because the womb
being cleansed, they are better prepared for conception.

Q. Why do women look pale when they first have their menses upon them?
A. Because the heat goes from the outward parts of the body to the
inward, to help nature to expel their terms, which deprivation of heat
doth cause a paleness in the face. Or, because that flux is caused of
raw humours, which, when they run, make the face colourless.

Q. Why do they at that time abhor their meat? A. Because nature labours
more to expel their terms than digest; and, therefore, if they should
eat, their food would remain raw in the stomach.

Q. Why are some women barren and do not conceive? A. 1. It proceeds
sometimes from the man who may be of a cold nature, so that his seed is
unfit for generation. 2. Because it is waterish, and so doth not stay in
the womb. 3. By reason that the seed of them both hath not a like
proportion, as if the man be melancholy and the woman sanguine, or the
man choleric and the woman phlegmatic.

Q. Why do fat women seldom conceive? A. Because they have a slippery
womb, and the seed will not stay in it. Or, because the mouth of the
matrix is very strait, and the seed cannot enter it, or, if it does, it
is so very slowly that it grows cold and unfit for generation.

Q. Why do those of a hot constitution seldom conceive? A. Because the
seed in them is extinguished or put out, as water cast into fire;
whereof we find that women who vehemently desire the flesh seldom
conceive.

Q. Why are whores never with child? A. By reason of divers seeds, which
corrupt and spoil the instruments of conception, for it makes them so
slippery, that they cannot retain seed. Or, else, it is because one
man's seed destroys another's, so neither is good for generation.

Q. Why do women conceive twins? A. Because there are seven cells or
receptacles in the womb; wherefore they may naturally have so many
children at once as there falls seed into these cells.

Q. Why are twins but half men, and not so strong as others? A. The seed
that should have been for one, is divided into two and therefore they
are weakly and seldom live long.



_Of Hermaphrodites._

Q. How are hermaphrodites begotten? A. Nature doth always tend to that
which is best, and always intendeth to beget the male and not the
female, because the female is only for the male's mate. Therefore the
male is sometimes begotten in all its principal parts; and, yet, through
the indisposition of the womb and object, and inequality of the seeds,
when nature cannot perfect the male, she brings forth the female too.
And therefore natural philosophers say, that an hermaphrodite is
impotent in the privy parts of a man, as appears by experience.

Q. Is an hermaphrodite accounted a man or a woman? A. It is to be
considered in which member he is fittest for copulation; if he be
fittest in the woman's, then he is a woman; if in a man's, then he is a
man.

Q. Should he be baptized in the name of a man or a woman? A. In the
name of a man, because names are given _ad placitum_, and therefore he
should be baptized, according to the worthiest name, because every agent
is worthier than its patient.



_Of Monsters._

Q. Doth nature make any monsters? A. She doth; if she did not, then
would she be deprived of her end. For of things possible, she doth
always propose to bring forth that which is most perfect and best; but
in the end, through the evil disposition of the matter, not being able
to bring forth that which she intended, she brings forth that which she
can. As it happened in Albertus's time, when in a certain village, a cow
brought forth a calf, half a man; then the countrymen suspecting a
shepherd, would have burnt him with the cow; but Albertus, being skilled
in astronomy, said that this did proceed from a certain constellation,
and so delivered the shepherd from their hands.

Q. Are they one or two? A. To find out, you must look into the heart, if
there be two hearts, there be two men.

Q. Why are some children like their father, some like their mother, some
to both and some to neither? A. If the seed of the father wholly
overcome that of the mother the child doth resemble the father; but if
the mother's predominate, then it is like the mother; but if he be like
neither, that doth sometimes happen through the four qualities,
sometimes through the influence of some heavenly constellation.

Q. Why are children oftener like the father than the mother? A. It
proceeds from the imagination of the mother in the act of copulation, as
appeared in a queen who had her imagination on a blackamoor; and in the
Ethiopian queen who brought forth a white child, because her imagination
was upon a white colour; as is seen in Jacob's skill in casting rods of
divers colours into the water, when his sheep went to ram.

Q. Why do children born in the eighth month for the most part die
quickly, and why are they called the children of the moon? A. Because
the moon is a cold planet, which has dominion over the child, and
therefore doth bind it with coldness, which is the cause of its death.

Q. Why doth a child cry as soon as it is born? A. Because of the sudden
change from heat to cold: which cold doth affect its tenderness. Another
reason is, because the child's soft and tender body is wringed and put
together coming out of the narrow and strait passage of the matrix, and
especially, the brain being moist, and the head being pressed and
wrinkled together, is the cause that some humours distil by the eyes,
which are the cause of tears and weeping.

Q. Why doth the child put its fingers into its mouth as soon as it
cometh into the world? A. Because that coming out of the womb it cometh
out of a hot bath, and entering into the cold, puts them into its mouth
for want of heat.



_Of the Child in the Womb._

Q. How is the child engendered in the womb? A. The first six days the
seed hath this colour of milk, but in the six following a red colour,
which is near unto the disposition of the flesh; and then it is changed
into a thick substance of blood. But in the twelve days following, this
substance becomes so thick and round that it is capable of receiving
shape and form.

Q. Doth the child in the womb void excrements or make water? No. Because
it hath not the first digestion which is in the stomach. It receives no
food by the mouth, but by the navel; therefore, makes no urine but
sweats, which is but little, and is received in a skin in the matrix,
which at the birth is cast out.



_Of Abortion and Untimely Birth._

Q. Why do women that eat unwholesome meats, easily miscarry? A. Because
they breed putrefied seed, which the mind abhorring doth cast it out of
the womb as unfit for the shape which is adapted to receive the soul.

Q. Why doth wrestling and leaping cause the casting of the child, as
some subtle women do on purpose? A. The vapour is burning, and doth
easily hurt the tender substance of the child, entering in at the pores
of the matrix.

Q. Why doth much joy cause a woman to miscarry? A. Because in the time
of joy, a woman is destitute of heat, and so a miscarriage doth follow.

Q. Why do women easily miscarry when they are first with child, viz.,
the first, second or third month? A. As apples and pears easily fall at
first, because the knots and ligaments are weak, so it is with a child
in the womb.

Q. Why is it hard to miscarry in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth
month? A. Because the ligaments are stronger and well fortified.



_Of Divers Matters._

Q. Why has not a man a tail like a beast? A. Because man is a noble
creature, whose property is to sit; which a beast, having a tail,
cannot.

Q. Why does hot water freeze sooner than cold? A. Hot water is thinner,
and gives better entrance to the frost.

Q. Why is every living creature dull after copulation? A. By reason that
the act is filthy and unclean; and so every living creature abhors it.
When men do think upon it, they are ashamed and sad.

Q. Why cannot drunken men judge of taste as well as sober men? A.
Because the tongue, being full of pores and spongy, receives more
moisture into it, and more in drunken men than in sober; therefore, the
tongue, through often drinking, is full of bad humours, and so the
faculty of tasting is rendered out of order; also, through the
thickening of the taste itself, drink taken by drunkards is not
presently felt. And by this may also be understood why drunkards have
not a perfect speech.

Q. Why have melancholy beasts long ears? A. The ears proceed from a dry
and cold substance, called gristle, which is apt to become bone; and
because melancholy beasts do abound with this kind of substance, they
have long ears.

Q. Why do hares sleep with their eyes open? A. 1. They have their eyes
standing out, and their eyelids short, therefore, never quite shut. 2.
They are timorous, and as a safe-guard to themselves, sleep with their
eyes open.

Q. Why do not crows feed their young till they be nine days old? A.
Because seeing them of another colour, they think they are of another
kind.

Q. Why are sheep and pigeons mild? A. They want galls, the cause of
anger.

Q. Why have birds their stones inward? A. Because if outward, they would
hinder their flying and lightness.

Q. How comes it that birds do not piss? A. Because that superfluity
which would be converted into urine, is turned into feathers.

Q. Why do we hear better in the night than by day? A. Because there is a
greater quietness in the night than in the day, for the sun doth not
exhale the vapours by night, but it doth in the day, therefore the moon
is more fit than in the day; and the moon being fit, the motion is
better received, which is said to be caused by a sound.

Q. For what reason doth a man laugh sooner when touched in the armpits
than in any other part of the body? A. Because there is in that place a
meeting of many sinews, and the mean we touch, which is the flesh, is
more subtle than in other parts, and therefore of finer feeling. When a
man is moderately and gently touched there the spirits that are
dispersed run into the face and causes laughter.

Q. Why do some women love white men and some black men? A. 1. Some have
weak sight, and such delight in black, because white doth hurt the sight
more than black. 2. Because like delight in like; but some women are of
a hot nature, and such are delighted with black, because blackness
followeth heat; and others are of a cold nature, and those are delighted
with white, because cold produces white.

Q. Why do men incline to sleep after labour? A. Because, through
continual moving, the heat is dispersed to the external parts of the
body, which, after labour, is gathered together in the internal parts,
there to digest; and from digestion, vapours arise from the heart to the
brain, which stop the passage by which the natural heat should be
dispersed to the external part; and then, the external parts being cold
and thick, by reason of the coldness of the brain sleep is easily
procured. By this it appeareth that such as eat and drink too much, do
sleep much and long, because there are great store of humours and
vapours bred in such persons which cannot be consumed and digested by
the natural heat.

Q. Why are such as sleep much, evil disposed and ill-coloured? A.
Because in too much sleep moisture is gathered together, which cannot be
consumed, and so it doth covet to go out through the superficial parts
of the body, and especially it resorts to the face, and therefore is the
cause of bad colours, as appeareth in such as are phlegmatic and who
desire more sleep than others.

Q. Why do some imagine in their sleep that they eat and drink sweet
things? A. Because the phlegm drawn up by the jaws doth distil and drop
to the throat; and this phlegm is sweet after a sore sweat, and that
seemeth so to them.

Q. Why do some dream in their sleep that they are in the water and
drowned, and some that they were in the water and not drowned;
especially such as are phlegmatic? A. Because when the phlegmatic
substance doth turn to the high parts of the body, then many think they
are in the water and drowned; but when that substance draweth into the
internal parts, then they think they escape. Another reason may be,
overmuch repletion and drunkenness: and therefore, when men are overmuch
filled with meat, the fumes and vapours ascend and gather together, and
they think they are drowned and strangled; but if they cannot ascend so
high then they seem to escape.

Q. May a man procure a dream by an external cause? A. It may be done. If
a man speak softly in another man's ear and awake him not, then of his
stirring of the spirits there are thunderings and buzzings in the head,
which cause dreamings.

Q. How many humours are there in a man's body? A. Four, whereof every
one hath its proper place. The first is choler, called by physicians
_flava bilis_, which is placed in the liver. The second is melancholy,
called _atra bilis_, whose seat is in the spleen. The third is phlegm,
whose place is in the head. The fourth is blood, whose place is in the
heart.

Q. What condition and quality hath a man of a sanguine complexion? A. It
is fair and beautiful; hath his hair for the most part smooth; is bold;
retaineth that which he hath conceived; is shame-faced, given to music,
a lover of sciences, liberal, courteous, and not desirous of revenge.

Q. What properties do follow those of a phlegmatic complexion? A. They
are dull of wit, their hair never curls, they are seldom very thirsty,
much given to sleep, dream of things belonging to water, are fearful,
covetous, given to heap up riches, and are weak in the act of venery.

Q. What are the properties of a choleric man? A. He is brown in
complexion, unquiet, his veins hidden, eateth little and digesteth less,
dreameth of dark and confused things, is sad, fearful, exceedingly
covetous, and incontinent.

Q. What dreams do follow these complexions? A. Pleasant, merry dreams do
follow the sanguine; fearful dreams, the melancholic; the choleric dream
of children fighting and fire; the phlegmatic dream of water. This is
the reason why a man's complexion is said to be known by his dreams.

Q. What is the reason that if you cover an egg over with salt, and let
it lie in it a few days, all the meat within is consumed? A. A great
dryness of the salt consumes the substance of the egg.

Q. Why is the melancholic complexion the worst? A. Because it proceeds
from the dregs of the blood, is an enemy to mirth and bringeth on aged
appearance and death, being cold and dry.

Q. What is the cause that some men die joyful, and some in extreme
grief? A. Over-great joy doth overmuch heat the internal parts of the
body; and overmuch grief doth drown and suffocate the heart, which
failing, a man dieth.

Q. Why hath a man so much hair on his head? A. The hair on his head
proceeds from the vapours which arise from the stomach, and ascend to
the head, and also of the superfluities which are in the brain; and
those two passing through the pores of the head are converted into hair,
by reason of the heat and dryness of the head. And because man's body is
full of humours, and he hath more brains than any other living
creatures.

Q. How many ways is the brain purged and other hidden places of the
body? A. Four; the watery and gross humours are purged by the eyes,
melancholy by the ears, choler by the nose, and phlegm by the hair.

Q. What is the reason that such as are very fat in their youth, are in
danger of dying on a sudden? A. Such have very small and close veins, by
reason of their fatness, so that the air and the breath can hardly have
free course in them; and thereupon the natural heat wanting the
refreshment of air, is put out, and as it were, quenched.

Q. Why do garlic and onions grow after they are gathered? A. It
proceedeth from the humidity that is in them.

Q. Why do men feel cold sooner than women? A. Because men, being more
hot than women, have their pores more open, and therefore it doth sooner
enter into them than women.

Q. Why are not old men so subject to the plague as young men and
children? A. They are cold, and their pores are not so open as in youth;
and therefore the infecting air doth not penetrate so soon by reason of
their coldness.

Q. Why do we cast water in a man's face when he swooneth? A. Because
through the coldness of water the heat may run to the heart, and so give
strength.

Q. Why are those waters best and most delicate which run towards the
rising sun? A. Because they are soonest stricken with the sunbeams, and
made pure and subtle, the sun having them under it, and by that means
taking off the coldness and gross vapours which they gather from the
ground they run through.

Q. Why have women such weak and small voices? A. Because their
instruments and organs of speaking, by reason of their coldness, are
small and narrow; and therefore, receiving but little air, cause the
voice to be effeminate.

Q. Whereof doth it proceed that want of sleep doth weaken the brain and
body? A. Much watching doth engender choler, the which being hot both
dry up and lessen the humours which serve the brain, the head, and other
parts of the body.

Q. Wherefore doth vinegar so readily staunch blood? A. From its cold
virtue, for all cold is naturally binding, and vinegar being cold, hath
the like property.

Q. Why is sea-water salter in summer than in winter? A. From the heat of
the sun, seeing by experiment that a salt thing being heated becometh
more salt.

Q. Why do men live longer in hot regions than in cold? A. Because they
may be more dry, and by that means the natural heat is better preserved
in them than in cold countries.

Q. Why is well-water seldom or ever good? A. All water which standeth
still in the spring and is never heated by the sunbeams, is very heavy,
and hath much matter in it, and therefore wanting the heat of the sun,
is naught.

Q. Why do men sleep better and more at ease on the right side than on
the left? A. Because when they be on the left side, the lungs do lie
upon and cover the heart, which is on that side under the pap; now the
heart, the fountain of life, being thus occupied and hindered with the
lungs, cannot exercise its own proper operation, as being overmuch
heated with the lungs lying upon it, and therefore wanting the
refreshment of the air which the lungs do give it, like the blowing of a
pair of bellows, is choked and suffocated, but by lying on the right
side, those inconveniences are avoided.

Q. What is the reason that old men sneeze with great difficulty? A.
Because that through their coldness their arteries are very narrow and
close, and therefore the heat is not of force to expel the cold.

Q. Why doth a drunken man think that all things about him do turn round?
A. Because the spirits which serve the sight are mingled with vapours
and fumes, arising from the liquors he has drunk; the overmuch heat
causeth the eye to be in continual motion, and the eye being round,
causeth all things about it to seem to go round.

Q. Wherefore doth it proceed, that bread which is made with salt is
lighter than that which is made without it, considering that salt is
very heavy of itself? A. Although bread is very heavy of itself, yet the
salt dries it and makes it light, by reason of the heat which it hath;
and the more heat there is in it, the better the bread is, and the
lighter and more wholesome for the body.

Q. Why is not new bread good for the stomach? A. Because it is full of
moistness, and thick, hot vapours, which do corrupt the blood, and hot
bread is blacker than cold, because heat is the mother of blackness, and
because the vapours are not gone out of it.

Q. Why do lettuces make a man sleep? A. Because they engender gross
vapours.

Q. Why do the dregs of wine and oil go to the bottom, and those of honey
swim uppermost? A. Because the dregs of wine and oil are earthly, and
therefore go to the bottom; but honey is a liquid that cometh from the
stomach and belly of the bee; and is there in some sort putrefied and
made subtle; on which account the dregs are most light and hot, and
therefore go uppermost.

Q. Why do cats' and wolves' eyes shine in the night, and not in the day?
A. The eyes of these beasts are by nature more crystalline than the eyes
of other beasts, and therefore do so shine in darkness; but the
brightness of the sun doth hinder them from being seen in the day-time.

Q. What is the reason that some men, if they see others dance, do the
like with their hands and feet, or by other gestures of the body? A.
Because the sight having carried and represented unto the mind that
action, and judging the same to be pleasant and delightful, and
therefore the imagination draweth the like of it in conceit and stirs up
the body by the gestures.

Q. Why does much sleep cause some to grow fat and some lean? A. Those
who are of ill complexion, when they sleep, do consume and digest the
superfluities of what they have eaten, and therefore become fat. But
such as are of good complexion, when they sleep are more cold, and
digest less.

Q. How much, and from what cause do we suffer hunger better than thirst?
A. When the stomach hath nothing else to consume, it consumeth the
phlegm and humours which it findeth most ready and most at hand; and
therefore we suffer hunger better than thirst, because the heat hath
nothing to refresh itself with.

Q. Why doth the hair fall after a great sickness? A. Where the sickness
is long, as in the ague, the humours of the head are dried up through
overmuch heat, and, therefore, wanting nourishment, the hair falls.

Q. Why doth the hair of the eyebrows grow long in old men? A. Because
through their age the bones are thin through want of heat, and therefore
the hair doth grow there, by reason of the rheum of the eye.

Q. Whereof proceedeth gaping? A. Of gross vapours, which occupy the
vital spirits of the head, and of the coldness of the senses causing
sleepiness.

Q. What is the reason that some flowers do open with the sun rising, and
shut with the sun setting? A. Cold doth close and shut, as hath been
said, but the heat of the sun doth open and enlarge. Some compare the
sun to the soul of the body; for as the soul giveth life, so the sun
doth give life, and vivificate all things; but cold bringeth death,
withering and decaying all things.

Q. Why doth grief cause men to grow old and grey? A. Age is nothing else
but dryness and want of humours in the body; grief then causeth
alteration, and heat dryness; age and greyness follow immediately.

Q. Why are gelded beasts weaker than such as are not gelded? A. Because
they have less heat, and by that means less force and strength.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE PROBLEMS OF

MARCUS ANTONINUS SANCTIPERTIAS


Q. Why is it esteemed, in the judgment of the most wise, the hardest
thing to know a man's self? A. Because nothing can be known that is of
so great importance to man for the regulation of his conduct in life.
Without this knowledge, man is like the ship without either compass or
rudder to conduct her to port, and is tossed by every passion and
prejudice to which his natural constitution is subjected. To know the
form and perfection of man's self, according to the philosophers, is a
task too hard; and a man, says Plato, is nothing, or if he be anything,
he is nothing, but his soul.

Q. Why is a man, though endowed with reason, the most unjust of all
living creatures? A. Because only man is desirous of honour; and so it
happens that every one covets to seem good, and yet naturally shuns
labour, though he attain no virtue by it.

Q. Why doth immoderate copulation do more hurt than immoderate letting
of blood? A. The seed is full of nutriment, and better prepared for the
nurture of the body, than the blood; for the blood is nourished by the
seed.

Q. What is the reason that those that have long yards cannot beget
children? A. The seed, in going a long distance, doth lose the spirit,
and therefore becomes cold and unfit.

Q. Why do such as are corpulent cast forth but little seed in the act of
copulation, and are often barren? A. Because the seed of such goeth to
nourish the body. For the same reason corpulent women have but few
menses.

Q. How come women to be prone to venery in the summer time and men in
the winter? A. In summer the man's testicles hang down and are feebler
than in winter, or because hot natures become more lively in the cold
season; for a man is hot and dry, and a woman cold and moist; and
therefore in summer the strength of men decays, and that of women
increases, and they grow livelier by the benefit of the contrary
quality.

Q. Why is man the proudest of all living creatures? A. By reason of his
great knowledge; or, as philosophers say, all intelligent beings having
understanding, nothing remains that escapes man's knowledge in
particular; or it is because he hath rule over all earthly creatures,
and all things seem to be brought under his dominion.

Q. Why have beasts their hearts in the middle of their breasts, and man
his inclining to the left? A. To moderate the cold on that side.

Q. Why doth the woman love the man best who has got her maidenhead? A.
By reason of shame-facedness; Plato saith, shame-facedness doth follow
love, or, because it is the beginning of great pleasure, which doth
bring a great alteration in the whole body, whereby the powers of the
mind are much delighted, and stick and rest immoveable in the same.

Q. How come hairy people to be more lustful than any other? A. Because
they are said to have greater store of excrements and seed as
philosophers assert.

Q. What is the cause that the suffocation of the matrix, which happens
to women through strife and contention, is more dangerous than the
detaining of the flowers? A. Because the more perfect an excrement is in
its natural disposition, the worse it is when it is altered from that
disposition, and drawn to the contrary quality; as is seen in vinegar,
which is sharpest when it is made of the best wine. And so it happens
that the more men love one another the more they fall into variance and
discord.

Q. How come women's bodies to be looser, softer and less than man's; and
why do they want hair? A. By reason of their menses; for with them their
superfluities go away, which would produce hair; and thereby the flesh
is filled, consequently the veins are more hid in women than in men.

Q. What is the reason that when we think upon a horrible thing, we are
stricken with fear? A. Because the conceit or imagination of things has
force and virtue. For Plato saith, the fancy of things has some affinity
with things themselves; for the image and representation of cold and
heat is such as the nature of things are. Or it is this, because when we
comprehend any dreadful matter, the blood runneth to the internal parts;
and therefore the external parts are cold and shake with fear.

Q. Why doth a radish root help digestion and yet itself remaineth
undigested? A. Because the substance consisteth of divers parts; for
there are some thin parts in it, which are fit to digest meat, the which
being dissolved, there doth remain some thick and close substance in it,
which the heat cannot digest.

Q. Why do such as cleave wood, cleave it easier in the length than
athwart? A. Because in the wood there is a grain, whereby, if it be cut
in length, in the very cutting, one part naturally separateth from
another.

Q. What is the reason, that if a spear be stricken on the end, the sound
cometh sooner to one who standeth near, than to him who striketh? A.
Because, as hath been said, there is a certain long grain in wood,
directly forward, filled with air, but on the other side there is none,
and therefore a beam or spear being stricken on the end, the air which
is hidden receiveth a sound in the aforesaid grain which serveth for its
passage; and, seeing the sound cannot go easily out of it is carried
into the ear of him who is opposite; as those passages do not go from
side to side, a sound cannot be distinctly heard there.

Q. Why are the thighs and calves of the legs of men flesh, seeing the
legs of beasts are not so? A. Because men only go upright; and therefore
nature hath given the lower parts corpulency, and taken it away from the
upper; and thus she hath made the buttocks, the thighs, and calves of
the legs fleshy.

Q. Why are the sensible powers in the heart; yet if the hinder part of
the brain be hurt, the memory suffereth by it; if the forepart, the
imagination; if the middle, the cogitative part? A. It is because the
brain is appointed by nature to cool the blood of the heart; whereof it
is, that in divers of its parts it serveth the powers and instruments
with their heart, for every action of the soul doth not proceed from one
measure of heat.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE PROBLEMS OF

ALEXANDER APHRODISEUS


Q. Why doth the sun make a man black and dirt white, wax soft and dirt
hard? A. By reason of the disposition of the substance that doth suffer.
All humours, phlegm excepted, when heated above measure, do seem black
about the skin; and dirt, being full either of saltpetre, or salt
liquor, when the sun hath consumed its dregs and filth, doth become
white again. When the sun hath stirred up and drawn the humidity of the
wax, it is softened; but in the dirt, the sun doth consume the humidity,
which is very much and makes it hard.

Q. Why are round ulcers hard to be cured? A. Because they are bred of a
sharp choler, which eats and gnaws; and because it doth run, dropping
and gnawing, it makes a round ulcer; for which reason it requires dry
medicines, as physicians assert.

Q. Why is honey sweet to all men, but to such as have jaundice? A.
Because they have much bitter choler all over their bodies, which
abounds in the tongue; whence it happens when they eat honey the humours
are stirred, and the taste itself, by the bitterness of choler, causes
an imagination that the honey is bitter.

Q. Why doth water cast on serpents, cause them to fly? A. Because they
are dry and cold by nature, having but little blood, and therefore fly
from excessive coldness.

Q. Why doth an egg break if roasted, and not if boiled? A. When moisture
comes near the fire, it is heated very much, and so breeds wind, which
being put up in little room, forces its way out, and breaks the shell:
the like happens in tubs or earthen vessels when new wine is put into
them; too much phlegm breaks the shell of an egg in roasting; it is the
same with earthen pots too much heated; wherefore some people wet an egg
when they intend to roast it. Hot water, by its softness, doth dissipate
its humidity by little and little, and dissolves it through the thinness
and passages of the shell.

Q. Why do men wink in the act of copulation, and find a little
alteration in all other senses? A. Because, being overcome by the effect
of that pleasure, they do comprehend it the better.

Q. Why have children gravel breeding in their bladders, and old men in
their kidneys and veins? A. Because children have straight passages in
their kidneys, and an earthly thick humour is thrust with violence by
the urine to the bladder, which hath wide conduits or passages, that
give room for the urine and humour whereof gravel is engendered, which
waxes thick, and seats itself, as the manner of it is. In old men it is
the reverse, for they have wide passages of the veins, back and kidneys,
that the urine may pass away, and the earthly humour congeal and sink
down; the colour of the gravel shows the humour whereof the stone comes.

Q. Why is it, if the stone do congeal and wax hard through heat, we use
not contrary things to dissolve it by coldness, but light things, as
parsley, fennel and the like? A. It is thought, to fall out by an
excessive scorching heat, by which the stones do crumble into sand, as
in the manner of earthen vessels, which, when they are overheated or
roasted, turn to sand. And by this means it happens that small stones
are avoided, together with sand, in making water. Sometimes cold drink
thrusts out the stone, the kidneys being stretched and casting it out by
a great effort; thus easing the belly of its burden. Besides, it often
happens that immoderate heat of the kidneys, or of the veins of the back
(through which the stone doth grow) is quenched with coldness.

Q. Why is the curing of an ulcer or bile in the kidneys or bladder very
hard? A. Because the urine being sharp, doth ulcerate the sore. Ulcers
are worse to cure in the bladder than in the kidneys, because urine
stays in the former, but runs away from the latter.

Q. Why do chaff and straw keep water hot, but make snow cold? A. Because
the nature of chaff wants a manifest quantity; seeing, therefore that of
its own nature, it can easily be mingled, and consumed by that which it
is annexed onto, it easily assumes the same nature, and being put into
hot things, it is easily hot, heats again, and keeps hot; and on the
contrary, being made cold by the snow, and making the snow cold it keeps
in its coldness.

Q. Why have we oftentimes a pain in making water? A. Because sharp
choler issuing out, and pricking the bladder of the urine, doth provoke
and stir up the whole body to ease the part offended, and to expel the
humour moderately. This doth happen most of all unto children, because
they have moist excrements by reason of their often drinking.

Q. Why have some medicines of one kind contrary effects, as experience
proves; for mastich doth expel, dissolve and also knit; and vinegar
cools and heats? A. Because there are some small invisible bodies in
them, not in confusion, but by interposition; as sand moistened doth
clog together and seem to be but one body, though indeed there are many
small bodies in sand. And since this is so, it is not absurd that the
contrary qualities and virtues should be hidden in mastich, and that
nature hath given that virtue to these bodies.

Q. Why do nurses rock and move their children when they would rock them
to sleep? A. To the end that the humours being scattered by moving, may
move the brains; but those of more years cannot endure this.

Q. Why doth oil, being drunk, cause one to vomit, and especially yellow
choler? A. Because being light, and ascending upwards it provoketh the
nutriment in the stomach, and lifteth it up; and so, the stomach being
grieved, summoneth the ejective virtue to vomit, and especially choler,
because that is light and consisteth of subtle parts, and therefore the
sooner carried upward; for when it is mingled with any moist thing, it
runneth into the highest room.

Q. Why doth not oil mingle with moist things? A. Because, being pliant,
soft and thick in itself, it cannot be divided into parts, and so cannot
be mingled; neither if it be put on the earth can it enter into it.

Q. Why are water and oil frozen in cold weather, and wine and vinegar
not? A. Because that oil being without quality, and fit to be compounded
with anything, is cold quickly and so extremely that it is most cold.
Water being cold of nature, doth easily freeze when it is made colder
than its own nature. Wine being hot, and of subtle parts, suffereth no
freezing.

Q. Why do contrary things in quality bring forth the same effect? A.
That which is moist is hardened and bound alike by heat and cold. Snow
and liquid do freeze with cold; a plaster and gravel in the bladder are
made dry with heat. The effect indeed is the same, but by two divers
actions; the heat doth consume and eat the abundance of moisture; but
the cold stopping and shutting with its over much thickness, doth wring
out the filthy humidity, like as a sponge wrung with the hand doth cast
out the water which it hath in the pores and small passages.

Q. Why doth a shaking or quivering seize us oftentimes when any fearful
matter doth happen, as a great noise or a crack made, the sudden
downfall of water, or the fall of a large tree? A. Because that
oftentimes the humours being digested and consumed by time and made thin
and weak, all the heat vehemently, suddenly and sharply flying into the
inward part of the body, consumeth the humours which cause the disease.
So treacle hath this effect, and many such like, which are hot and dry
when taken after connexion.

Q. Why do steel glasses shine so clearly? A. Because they are lined in
the inside with white lead, whose nature is shining, and being put to
glass, which is lucid and transparent, doth shine much more; and casts
its beams through its passages, and without the body of the glass; and
by that means the glass is very shining and clear.

Q. Why do we see ourselves in glasses and clear water? A. Because the
quality of the sight, passing into the bright bodies by reflection, doth
return again on the beam of the eyes, as the image of him who looketh on
it.

Q. What is the reason that if you cast a stone in standing water which
is near the surface of the earth, it causes many circles, and not if the
water be deep in the earth? A. Because the stone, with the vehemence of
the cast, doth agitate the water in every part of it, until it come to
the bottom; and if there be a very great vehemence in the throw, the
circle is still greater, the stone going down to the bottom causing many
circles. For, first of all, it doth divide the outermost and superficial
parts of the water in many parts, and so, always going down to the
bottom, again dividing the water, it maketh another circle, and this is
done successively until the stone resteth; and because the vehemence of
the stone is slackened, still as it goes down, of necessity the last
circle is less than the first, because by that and also by its force the
water is divided.

Q. Why are such as are deaf by nature, dumb? A. Because they cannot
speak and express that which they never hear. Some physicians do say,
that there is one knitting and uniting of sinews belonging to the like
disposition. But such as are dumb by accident are not deaf at all, for
then there ariseth a local passion.

Q. Why doth itching arise when an ulcer doth wax whole and phlegm
ceases? A. Because the part which is healed and made sound doth pursue
the relic of the humours which remained there against nature, and which
was the cause of the bile, and so going out through the skin, and
dissolving itself, doth originally cause the itch.

Q. How comes a man to sneeze oftener and more vehemently than a beast?
A. Because he uses more meats and drinks, and of more different sorts,
and that more than is requisite; the which, when he cannot digest as he
would, he doth gather together much air and spirit, by reason of much
humidity; the spirits then very subtle, ascending into the head, often
force a man to void them, and so provoke sneezing. The noise caused
thereby proceeds from a vehement spirit or breath passing through the
conduit of the nostrils, as belching doth from the stomach or farting by
the fundament, the voice by the throat, and a sound by the ear.

Q. How come the hair and nails of dead people to grow? A. Because the
flesh rotting, withering and falling away, that which was hidden about
the root of the hair doth now appear as growing. Some say that it grows
indeed, because carcasses are dissolved in the beginning to many
excrements and superfluities by putrefaction. These going out at the
uppermost parts of the body by some passages, do increase the growth of
the hair.

Q. Why does not the hair of the feet soon grow grey? A. For this reason,
because that through great motion they disperse and dissolve the
superfluous phlegm that breeds greyness. The hair of the secrets grows
very late, because of the place, and because that in carnal copulation
it dissolves the phlegm also.

Q. Why, if you put hot burnt barley upon a horse's sore, is the hair
which grows upon the sore not white, but like the other hair? A. Because
it hath the force of expelling; and doth drive away and dissolve the
phlegm, as well as all other unprofitable matter that is gathered
together through the weakness of the parts, or condity of the sore.

Q. Why doth the hair never grow on an ulcer or bile? A. Because man hath
a thick skin, as is seen by the thickness of his hair; and if the scar
be thicker than the skin itself, it stops the passages from whence the
hair should grow. Horses have thinner skins, as is plain by their hair;
therefore all passages are not stopped in their wounds and sores; and
after the excrements which were gathered together have broken a passage
through those small pores the hair doth grow.

Q. Why is Fortune painted with a double forehead, the one side bald and
the other hairy? A. The baldness signifies adversity, and hairiness
prosperity, which we enjoy when it pleaseth her.

Q. Why have some commended flattery? A. Because flattery setteth forth
before our eyes what we ought to be, though not what we are.

Q. Wherefore should virtue be painted girded? A. To show that virtuous
men should not be slothful, but diligent and always in action.

Q. Why did the ancients say it was better to fall into the hands of a
raven than a flatterer? A. Because ravens do not eat us till we be dead,
but flatterers devour us alive.

Q. Why have choleric men beards before others? A. Because they are hot,
and their pores large.

Q. How comes it that such as have the hiccups do ease themselves by
holding their breath? A. The breath retained doth heat the interior
parts of the body, and the hiccups proceeds from cold.

Q. How comes it that old men remember well what they have seen and done
in their youth, and forget such things as they see and do in their old
age? A. Things learned in youth take deep root and habitude in a person,
but those learned in age are forgotten because the senses are then
weakened.

Q. What kind of covetousness is best? A. That of time when employed as
it ought to be.

Q. Why is our life compared to a play? A. Because the dishonest do
occupy the place of the honest, and the worst sort the room of the good.

Q. Why do dolphins, when they appear above the water, denote a storm or
tempest approaching? A. Because at the beginning of a tempest there do
arise from the bottom of the sea, certain hot exhalations and vapours
which heat the dolphins, causing them to rise up for cold air.

Q. Why did the Romans call Fabius Maximus the target of the people, and
Marcellus the sword? A. Because the one adapted himself to the service
of the commonwealth, and the other was very eager to revenge the
injuries of his country; and yet they were in the senate joined
together, because the gravity of the one would moderate the courage and
boldness of the other.

Q. Why doth the shining of the moon hurt the head? A. Because it moves
the humours of the brain, and cannot afterwards dissolve them.

Q. If water do not nourish, why do men drink it? A. Because water
causeth the nutriment to spread through the body.

Q. Why is sneezing good? A. Because it purgeth the brain as milk is
purged by the cough.

Q. Why is hot water lighter than cold? A. Because boiling water has less
ventosity and is more light and subtle, the earthly and heavy substance
being separated from it.

Q. How comes marsh and pond water to be bad? A. By reason they are
phlegmatic, and do corrupt in summer; the fineness of water is turned
into vapours, and the earthiness doth remain.

Q. Why are studious and learned men soonest bald? A. It proceeds from a
weakness of the spirits, or because warmth of digestion cause phlegm to
abound in them.

Q. Why doth much watching make the brain feeble? A. Because it increases
choler, which dries and extenuates the body.

Q. Why are boys apt to change their voices about fourteen years of age?
A. Because that then nature doth cause a great and sudden change of
voice; experience proves this to be true; for at that time we may see
that women's paps do grow great, do hold and gather milk, and also those
places that are above their hips, in which the young fruit would remain.
Likewise men's breasts and shoulders, which then can bear great and
heavy burdens; also their stones in which their seed may increase and
abide, and in their privy members, to let out the seed with ease.
Further all the body is made bigger and dilated, as the alteration and
change of every part doth testify, and the harshness of the voice and
hoarseness; for the rough artery, the wind pipe, being made wide in the
beginning, and the exterior and outward part being unequal to the
throat, the air going out the rough, unequal and uneven pipe doth then
become unequal and sharp, and after, hoarse, something like unto the
voice of a goat, wherefore it has its name called Bronchus. The same
doth also happen to them unto whose rough artery distillation doth
follow; it happens by reason of the drooping humidity that a slight
small skin filled unequally causes the uneven going forth of the spirit
and air. Understand, that the windpipe of goats is such by reason of the
abundance of humidity. The like doth happen unto all such as nature hath
given a rough artery, as unto cranes. After the age of fourteen they
leave off that voice, because the artery is made wider and reacheth its
natural evenness and quality.

Q. Why do hard dens, hollow and high places, send back the likeness and
sound of the voice? A. Because that in such places also by reflection do
return back the image of a sound, for the voice doth beat the air, and
the air the place, which the more it is beaten the more it doth bear,
and therefore doth cause the more vehement sound of the voice; moist
places, and as it were, soft, yielding to the stroke, and dissolving it,
give no sound again; for according to the quantity of the stroke, the
quality and quantity of the voice is given, which is called an echo.
Some do idly fable that she is a goddess; some say that Pan was in love
with her, which without doubt is false. He was some wise man, who did
first desire to search out the cause of the voice, and as they who love,
and cannot enjoy that love, are grieved, so in like manner was he very
sorry until he found out the solution of that cause; as Endymion also,
who first found out the course of the moon, watching all night, and
observing her course, and searching her motion, did sleep in the
daytime, and that she came to him when he was asleep, because she did
give the philosopher the solution of the course herself. They say also
that he was a shepherd, because that in the desert and high places, he
did mark the course of the moon. And they gave him also the pipe because
that the high places are blown with wind, or else because he sought out
the consonancy of figures. Prometheus also, being a wise man, sought the
course of the star, which is called the eagle in the firmament, his
nature and place; and when he was, as it were, wasted with the desire of
learning, then at last he rested, when Hercules did resolve unto him all
doubts with his wisdom.

Q. Why do not swine cry when they are carried with their snouts upwards?
A. Because that of all other beasts they bend more to the earth. They
delight in filth, and that they seek, and therefore in the sudden change
of their face, they be as it were strangers, and being amazed with so
much light do keep that silence; some say the windpipe doth close
together by reason of the straitness of it.

Q. Why do swine delight in dirt? A. As physicians do say, they are
naturally delighted with it, because they have a great liver, in which
desire it, as Aristotle saith, the wideness of their snout is the case,
for he that hath smelling which doth dissolve itself, and as it were
strive with stench.

Q. Why do many beasts when they see their friends, and a lion and a
bull beat their sides when they are angry? A. Because they have the
marrow of their backs reaching to the tail, which hath the force of
motion in it, the imagination acknowledging that which is known to them,
as it were with the hand, as happens to men, doth force them to move
their tails. This doth manifestly show some secret force to be within
them, which doth acknowledge what they ought. In the anger of lions and
bulls, nature doth consent to the mind, and causeth it to be greatly
moved, as men do sometimes when they are angry, beating their hands on
other parts; when the mind cannot be revenged on that which doth hurt,
it presently seeks out some other source, and cures the malady with a
stroke or blow.

Q. How come steel glasses to be better for the sight than any other
kind? A. Because steel is hard, and doth present unto us more
substantially the air that receiveth the light.

Q. How doth love show its greater force by making the fool to become
wise, or the wise to become a fool? A. In attributing wisdom to him that
has it not; for it is harder to build than to pull down; and ordinarily
love and folly are but an alteration of the mind.

Q. How comes much labour and fatigue to be bad for the sight? A.
Because it dries the blood too much.

Q. Why is goat's milk reckoned best for the stomach? A. Because it is
thick, not slimy, and they feed on wood and boughs rather than on grass.

Q. Why do grief and vexation bring grey hairs? A. Because they dry,
which bringeth on greyness.

Q. How come those to have most mercy who have the thickest blood? A.
Because the blood which is fat and thick makes the spirits firm and
constant, wherein consists the force of all creatures.

Q. Whether it is hardest, to obtain a person's love, or to keep it when
obtained? A. It is hardest to keep it, by reason of the inconstancy of
man, who is quickly angry, and soon weary of a thing; hard to be gained
and slippery to keep.

Q. Why do serpents shun the herb rue? A. Because they are cold, dry and
full of sinews, and that herb is of a contrary nature.

Q. Why is a capon better to eat than a cock? A. Because a capon loses
not his moisture by treading of the hens.

Q. Why is our smell less in winter than in summer? A. Because the air is
thick, and less moveable.

Q. Why does hair burn so quickly? A. Because it is dry and cold.

Q. Why is love compared to a labyrinth? A. Because the entry and coming
in is easy, and the going out almost impossible or hard.

       *       *       *       *       *




PART IV

DISPLAYING THE SECRETS OF

NATURE

RELATING TO

PHYSIOGNOMY

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER I


SECTION 1.--_Of Physiognomy, showing what it is, and whence it is
derived._

Physiognomy is an ingenious science, or knowledge of nature, by which
the inclinations and dispositions of every creature are understood, and
because some of the members are uncompounded, and entire of themselves,
as the tongue, the heart, etc., and some are of a mixed nature, as the
eyes, the nose and others, we therefore say that there are signs which
agree and live together, which inform a wise man how to make his
judgment before he be too rash to deliver it to the world.

Nor is it to be esteemed a foolish or idle art, seeing it is derived
from the superior bodies; for there is no part of the face of man but
what is under the peculiar influence or government, not only of the
seven planets but also of the twelve signs of Zodiac; and the
dispositions, vices, virtues and fatality, either of a man or woman are
plainly foretold, if the person pretending to the knowledge thereof be
an artist, which, that my readers may hereby attain it I shall set these
things in a clearer light.

The reader should remember that the forehead is governed by Mars; the
right eye is under the domination of Sol; the left is ruled by the Moon;
the right ear is under Jupiter; the left, Saturn, the rule of the nose
is claimed by Venus, which, by the way, is one reason that in all
unlawful venereal encounters, the nose is too subject to bear the scars
that are gotten in those wars; and nimble Mercury, the significator of
eloquence claims the dominion of the mouth, and that very justly.

Thus have the seven planets divided the face among them, but not with so
absolute a way but that the twelve signs of the Zodiac do also come in
with a part (see the engraving) and therefore the sign Cancer presides
in the upper part of the forehead, and Leo attends upon the right
eyebrow, as Saggittarius does upon the right eye, and Libra upon the
right ear, upon the left eyebrow you will find Aquarius; and Gemini and
Aries taking care of the left ear; Taurus rules in the middle of the
forehead, and Capricorn the chin; Scorpio takes upon him the protection
of the nose; Virgo claims the precedence of the right cheek, Pisces the
left. And thus the face of man is cantoned out amongst the signs and
planets; which being carefully attended to, will sufficiently inform
the artist how to pass a judgment. For according to the sign or planet
ruling so also is the judgment to be of the part ruled, which all those
that have understanding know easily how to apply.

[Illustration]

In the judgment that is to be made from physiognomy, there is a great
difference betwixt a man and a woman; the reason is, because in respect
of the whole composition men more fully comprehend it than women do, as
may evidently appear by the manner and method we shall give. Wherefore
the judgments which we shall pass in every chapter do properly concern a
man, as comprehending the whole species, and but improperly the woman,
as being but a part thereof, and derived from the man, and therefore,
whoever is called to give judgment on such a face, ought to be wary
about all the lines and marks that belong to it, respect being also had
to the sex, for when we behold a man whose face is like unto a woman's
and we pass a judgment upon it, having diligently observed it, and not
on the face only, but on other parts of the body, as hands, etc., in
like manner we also behold the face of a woman, who in respect to her
flesh and blood is like unto a man, and in the disposure also of the
greatest part of the body. But does physiognomy give the same judgment
on her, as it does of a man that is like unto her? By no means, but far
otherwise, in regard that the conception of the woman is much different
from that of a man, even in those respects which are said to be common.
Now in those common respects two parts are attributed to a man, and a
third part to a woman.

Wherefore it being our intention to give you an exact account, according
to the rule of physiognomy of all and every part of the members of the
body, we will begin with the head, as it hath relation only to man and
woman, and not to any other creature, that the work may be more obvious
to every reader.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER II

     _Of the Judgment of Physiognomy._


Hair that hangs down without curling, if it be of a fair complexion,
thin and soft withal, signifies a man to be naturally faint-hearted, and
of a weak body, but of a quiet and harmless disposition. Hair that is
big, and thick and short withal, denotes a man to be of a strong
constitution, secure, bold, deceitful and for the most part, unquiet and
vain, lusting after beauty, and more foolish than wise, though fortune
may favour him. He whose hair is partly curled and partly hanging down,
is commonly wise or a very great fool, or else as very a knave as he is
a fool. He whose hair grows thick on his temples and his brow, one may
certainly at first sight conclude that such a man is by nature simple,
vain, luxurious, lustful, credulous, clownish in his speech and
conversation and dull in his apprehension. He whose hair not only curls
very much, but bushes out, and stands on end, if the hair be white or of
a yellowish colour, he is by nature proud and bold, dull of
apprehension, soon angry, and a lover of venery, and given to lying,
malicious and ready to do any mischief. He whose hair arises in the
corners of the temples, and is gross and rough withal, is a man highly
conceited of himself, inclined to malice, but cunningly conceals it, is
very courtly and a lover of new fashions. He who hath much hair, that is
to say, whose hair is thick all over his head, is naturally vain and
very luxurious, of a good digestion, easy of belief, and slow of
performance, of a weak memory and for the most part unfortunate. He
whose hair is of a reddish complexion, is for the most part, if not
always, proud, deceitful, detracting and full of envy. He whose hair is
extraordinarily fair, is for the most part a man fit for the most
praiseworthy enterprises, a lover of honour, and much more inclined to
do good than evil; laborious and careful to perform whatsoever is
committed to his care, secret in carrying on any business, and
fortunate. Hair of a yellowish colour shows a man to be good
conditioned, and willing to do anything, fearful, shamefaced and weak of
body, but strong in the abilities of the mind, and more apt to remember,
than to avenge an injury. He whose hair is of a brownish colour, and
curled not too much nor too little, is a well-disposed man, inclined to
that which is good, a lover of peace, cleanliness and good manners. He
whose hair turns grey or hoary in the time of his youth, is generally
given to women, vain, false, unstable, and talkative. [Note. That
whatever signification the hair has in men, it has the same in women
also.]

The forehead that riseth in a round, signifies a man liberally merry, of
a good understanding, and generally inclined to virtue. He whose
forehead is fleshy, and the bone of the brow jutting out, and without
wrinkles, is a man much inclined to suits of law, contentious, vain,
deceitful, and addicted to follow ill courses. He whose forehead is
very low and little, is of a good understanding, magnanimous, but
extremely bold and confident, and a great pretender to love and honour.
He whose forehead seems sharp, and pointed up in the corners of his
temples, so that the bone seems to jut forth a little, is a man
naturally weak and fickle, and weak in the intellectuals. He whose brow
upon the temples is full of flesh, is a man of a great spirit, proud,
watchful and of a gross understanding. He whose brow is full of
wrinkles, and has as it were a seam coming down the middle of the
forehead, so that a man may think he has two foreheads, is one that is
of a great spirit, a great wit, void of deceit, and yet of a hard
fortune. He who has a full, large forehead, and a little round withal,
destitute of hair, or at least that has little on it is bold, malicious,
full of choler and apt to transgress beyond all bounds, and yet of a
good wit and very apprehensive. He whose forehead is long and high and
jutting forth, and whose face is figured, almost sharp and peaked
towards the chin, is one reasonably honest, but weak and simple, and of
a hard fortune.

Those eyebrows that are much arched, whether in man or woman, and which
by frequent motion elevate themselves, show the person to be proud,
high-spirited, vain-glorious, bold and threatening, a lover of beauty,
and indifferently inclined to either good or evil. He whose eyelids bend
down when he speaks to another or when he looks upon him, and who has a
kind of skulking look, is by nature a penurious wretch, close in all his
actions, of a very few words, but full of malice in his heart. He whose
eyebrows are thick, and have but little hair upon them, is but weak in
his intellectuals, and too credulous, very sincere, sociable, and
desirous of good company. He whose eyebrows are folded, and the hair
thick and bending downwards, is one that is clownish and unlearned,
heavy, suspicious, miserable, envious, and one that will cheat and cozen
you if he can. He whose eyebrows have but short hair and of a whitish
colour is fearful and very easy of belief, and apt to undertake
anything. Those, on the other side, whose eyebrows are black, and the
hair of them thin, will do nothing without great consideration, and are
bold and confident of the performance of what they undertake; neither
are they apt to believe anything without reason for so doing.

If the space between the eyebrows be of more than the ordinary distance,
it shows the person to be hard-hearted, envious, close, cunning,
apprehensive, greedy of novelties, of a vain fortune, addicted to
cruelty more than love. But those men whose eyebrows are at a lesser
distance from each other, are for the most part of a dull understanding;
yet subtle enough in their dealings, and of an uncommon boldness, which
is often attended with great felicity; but that which is most
commendable in them is, that they are most sure and constant in their
friendship.

Great and full eyes in either man or woman, show the person to be for
the most part slothful, bold, envious, a bad concealer of secrets,
miserable, vain, given to lying, and yet a bad memory, slow in
invention, weak in his intellectuals, and yet very much conceited of
that little knack of wisdom he thinks himself master of. He whose eyes
are hollow in his head, and therefore discerns well at a great distance,
is one that is suspicious, malicious, furious, perverse in his
conversation, of an extraordinary memory, bold, cruel, and false, both
in words and deeds, threatening, vicious, luxurious, proud, envious and
treacherous; but he whose eyes are, as it were, starting out of his
head, is a simple, foolish person, shameless, very fertile and easy to
be persuaded either to vice or virtue. He who looks studiously and
acutely, with his eyes and eyelids downwards, denotes thereby to be of a
malicious nature, very treacherous, false, unfaithful, envious,
miserable, impious towards God, and dishonest towards men. He whose
eyes are small and conveniently round, is bashful and weak, very
credulous, liberal to others, and even in his conversation. He whose
eyes look asquint, is thereby denoted to be a deceitful person, unjust,
envious, furious, a great liar, and as the effect of all that is
miserable. He who hath a wandering eye and which is rolling up and down,
is for the most part a vain, simple, deceitful, lustful, treacherous, or
high-minded man, an admirer of the fair sex, and one easy to be
persuaded to virtue or vice. He or she whose eyes are twinkling, and
which move forward or backward, show the person to be luxurious,
unfaithful and treacherous, presumptuous, and hard to believe anything
that is spoken. If a person has any greenness mingled with the white of
his eye, such is commonly silly, and often very false, vain and
deceitful, unkind to his friends, a great concealer of his own secrets,
and very choleric. Those whose eyes are every way rolling up and down,
or they who seldom move their eyes, and when they do, as it were, draw
their eyes inwardly and accurately fasten them upon some object, such
are by their inclinations very malicious, vain-glorious, slothful,
unfaithful, envious, false and contentious. They whose eyes are addicted
to blood-shot, are naturally proud, disdainful, cruel, without shame,
perfidious and much inclined to superstition. But he whose eyes are
neither too little nor too big, and inclined to black, do signify a man
mild, peaceable, honest, witty, and of a good understanding; and one
that, when need requires, will be serviceable to his friends.

A long and thin nose, denotes a man bold, furious, angry, vain, easy to
be persuaded either to good or evil, weak and credulous. A long nose
extended, the tip of it bending downwards, shows the person to be wise,
discreet, secret and officious, honest, faithful and one that will not
be over-reached in bargaining.

A bottle-nose is what denotes a man to be impetuous in the obtaining of
his desires, also a vain, false, luxurious, weak and uncertain man; apt
to believe and easy to be persuaded. A broad nose in the middle, and
less towards the end, denotes a vain, talkative person, a liar, and one
of hard fortune. He who hath a long and great nose is an admirer of the
fair sex, and well accomplished for the wars of Venus, but ignorant of
the knowledge of anything that is good, extremely addicted to vice;
assiduous in the obtaining what he desires, and very secret in the
prosecution of it; and though very ignorant, would fain be thought very
knowing.

A nose very sharp on the tip of it, and neither too long nor too short,
too thick nor too thin, denotes the person, if a man, to be of a fretful
disposition, always pining and peevish; and if a woman, a scold, or
contentious, wedded to her own humours, of a morose and dogged carriage,
and if married, a plague to her husband. A nose very round at the end of
it, and having but little nostrils, shows the person to be munificent
and liberal, true to his trust, but withal, very proud, credulous and
vain. A nose very long and thin at the end of it, and something round,
withal, signifies one bold in his discourse, honest in his dealings,
patient in receiving, and slow in offering injuries, but yet privately
malicious. He whose nose is naturally more red than any other part of
his face, is thereby denoted to be covetous, impious, luxurious, and an
enemy to goodness. A nose that turns up again, and is long and full at
the tip of it, shows the person that has it to be bold, proud, covetous,
envious, luxurious, a liar and deceiver, vain, glorious, unfortunate and
contentious. He whose nose riseth high in the middle, is prudent and
polite, and of great courage, honourable in his actions, and true to his
word. A nose big at the end shows a person to be of a peaceable
disposition, industrious and faithful, and of a good understanding. A
very wide nose, with wide nostrils, denotes a man dull of apprehension,
and inclined more to simplicity than wisdom, and withal vain,
contentious and a liar.

When the nostrils are close and thin, they denote a man to have but
little testicles, and to be very desirous of the enjoyment of women, but
modest in his conversation. But he whose nostrils are great and wide, is
usually well hung and lustful; but withal of an envious, bold and
treacherous disposition and though dull of understanding, yet confident
enough.

A great and wide mouth shows a man to be bold, warlike, shameless and
stout, a great liar and as great a talker, also a great eater, but as to
his intellectuals, he is very dull, being for the most part very simple.

A little mouth shows the person to be of a quiet and pacific temper,
somewhat reticent, but faithful, secret, modest, bountiful, and but a
little eater.

He whose mouth smells of a bad breath, is one of a corrupted liver and
lungs, is oftentimes vain, wanton, deceitful, of indifferent intellect,
envious, covetous, and a promise-breaker. He that has a sweet breath, is
the contrary.

The lips, when they are very big and blubbering, show a person to be
credulous, foolish, dull and stupid, and apt to be enticed to anything.
Lips of a different size denote a person to be discreet, secret in all
things, judicious and of a good wit, but somewhat hasty. To have lips,
well coloured and more thin than thick, shows a person to be
good-humoured in all things and more easily persuaded to good than evil.
To have one lip bigger than the other, shows a variety of fortunes, and
denotes the party to be of a dull, sluggish temper, but of a very
indifferent understanding, as being much addicted to folly.

When the teeth are small, and but weak in performing their office, and
especially if they are short and few, though they show the person to be
of a weak constitution, yet they denote him to be of a meek disposition,
honest, faithful and secret in whatsoever he is intrusted with. To have
some teeth longer and shorter than others, denotes a person to be of a
good apprehension, but bold, disdainful, envious and proud. To have the
teeth very long, and growing sharp towards the end, if they are long in
chewing, and thin, denotes the person to be envious, gluttonous, bold,
shameless, unfaithful and suspicious. When the teeth look very brown or
yellowish, whether they be long or short, it shows the person to be of a
suspicious temper, envious, deceitful and turbulent. To have teeth
strong and close together, shows the person to be of a long life, a
desirer of novelties, and things that are fair and beautiful, but of a
high spirit, and one that will have his humour in all things; he loves
to hear news, and to repeat it afterwards, and is apt to entertain
anything on his behalf. To have teeth thin and weak, shows a weak,
feeble man, and one of a short life, and of a weak apprehension; but
chaste, shame-faced, tractable and honest.

A tongue to be too swift of speech shows a man to be downright foolish,
or at best but a very vain wit. A stammering tongue, or one that
stumbles in the mouth, signifies a man of a weak understanding, and of a
wavering mind, quickly in a rage, and soon pacified. A very thick and
rough tongue denotes a man to be apprehensive, subtle and full of
compliments, yet vain and deceitful, treacherous, and prone to impiety.
A thin tongue shows a man of wisdom and sound judgment, very ingenious
and of an affable disposition, yet somewhat timorous and too credulous.

A great and full voice in either sex shows them to be of a great spirit,
confident, proud and wilful. A faint and weak voice, attended with but
little breath, shows a person to be of good understanding, a nimble
fancy, a little eater, but weak of body, and of a timorous disposition.
A loud and shrill voice, which sounds clearly denotes a person
provident, sagacious, true and ingenious, but withal capricious, vain,
glorious and too credulous. A strong voice when a man sings denotes him
to be of a strong constitution, and of a good understanding, a nimble
fancy, a little eater, but weak of body, and of a timorous disposition.

A strong voice when a man sings, denotes him to be of a strong
constitution, and of a good understanding, neither too penurious nor too
prodigal, also ingenious and an admirer of the fair sex. A weak and
trembling voice shows the owner of it to be envious, suspicious, slow in
business, feeble and fearful. A loud, shrill and unpleasant voice,
signifies one bold and valiant, but quarrelsome and injurious and
altogether wedded to his own humours, and governed by his own counsels.
A rough and hoarse voice, whether in speaking or singing, declares one
to be a dull and heavy person, of much guts and little brains. A full
and yet mild voice, and pleasing to the hearer, shows the person to be
of a quiet and peaceable disposition (which is a great virtue and rare
to be found in a woman), and also very thrifty and secret, not prone to
anger, but of a yielding temper. A voice beginning low or in the bass,
and ending high in the treble, denotes a person to be violent, angry,
bold and secure.

A thick and full chin abounding with too much flesh, shows a man
inclined to peace, honest and true to his trust, but slow in invention,
and easy to be drawn either to good or evil. A peaked chin and
reasonably full of flesh, shows a person to be of a good understanding,
a high spirit and laudable conversation. A double chin shows a peaceable
disposition, but dull of apprehension, vain, credulous, a great
supplanter, and secret in all his actions. A crooked chin, bending
upwards, and peaked for want of flesh, is by the rules of physiognomy,
according to nature, a very bad man, being proud, imprudent, envious,
threatening, deceitful, prone to anger and treachery, and a great thief.

The hair of young men usually begins to grow down upon their chins at
fifteen years of age, and sometimes sooner. These hairs proceed from the
superfluity of heat, the fumes whereof ascend to their chin, like smoke
to the funnel of a chimney; and because it cannot find an open passage
by which it may ascend higher, it vents itself forth in the hairs which
are called the beard. There are very few, or almost no women at all,
that have hairs on their cheeks; and the reason is, that those humours
which cause hair to grow on the cheeks of a man are by a woman
evacuated in the monthly courses, which they have more or less,
according to the heat or coldness of their constitution, and the age and
motion of the moon, of which we have spoken at large in the first part
of this book. Yet sometimes women of a hot constitution have hair to be
seen on their cheeks, but more commonly on their lips, or near their
mouths, where the heat most aboundeth. And where this happens, such
women are much addicted to the company of men, and of a strong and manly
constitution. A woman who hath little hair on her cheeks, or about her
mouth and lips, is of a good complexion, weak constitution, shamefaced,
mild and obedient, whereas a woman of a more hot constitution is quite
otherwise. But in a man, a beard well composed and thick of hair,
signifies a man of good nature, honest, loving, sociable and full of
humanity; on the contrary, he that hath but a little beard, is for the
most part proud, pining, peevish and unsociable. They who have no
beards, have always shrill and a strange kind of squeaking voices, and
are of a weak constitution, which is apparent in the case of eunuchs,
who, after they are deprived of their virility are transformed from the
nature of men into the condition of women.

Great and thick ears are a certain sign of a foolish person, or a bad
memory and worse understanding. But small and thin ears show a person to
be of a good wit, grave, sweet, thrifty, modest, resolute, of a good
memory, and one willing to serve his friend. He whose ears are longer
than ordinary, is thereby signified to be a bold man, uncivil, vain,
foolish, serviceable to another more than to himself, and a man of small
industry, but of a great stomach.

A face apt to sweat on every motion, shows a person to be of a very hot
constitution, vain and luxurious, of a good stomach, but of a bad
understanding, and a worse conversation. A very fleshy face shows the
person to be of a fearful disposition, but a merry heart, and withal
bountiful and discreet, easy to be entreated, and apt to believe
everything. A lean face, by the rules of physiognomy, denotes the person
to be of a good understanding, but somewhat capricious and disdainful in
his conversation. A little and round face, shows a person to be simple,
very fearful, of a bad memory, and a clownish disposition. A plump face,
full of carbuncles, shows a man to be a great drinker of wine, vain,
daring, and soon intoxicated. A face red or high coloured, shows a man
much inclined to choler, and one that will be soon angry and not easily
pacified. A long and lean face, shows a man to be both bold, injurious
and deceitful. A face every way of a due proportion, denotes an
ingenious person, one fit for anything and very much inclined to what is
good. One of a broad, full, fat face is, by the rules of physiognomy, of
a dull, lumpish, heavy constitution, and that for one virtue has three
vices. A plain, flat face, without any rising shows a person to be very
wise, loving and courtly in his carriage, faithful to his friend and
patient in adversity. A face sinking down a little, with crosses in it,
inclining to leanness, denotes a person to be very laborious, but
envious, deceitful, false, quarrelsome, vain and silly, and of a dull
and clownish behaviour. A face of a handsome proportion, and more
inclining to fat than lean, shows a person just in his actions, true to
his word, civil, and respectful in his behaviour, of an indifferent
understanding, and of an extraordinary memory. A crooked face, long and
lean, denotes a man endued with as bad qualities as the face is with ill
features. A face broad about the brows, and sharper and less as it grows
towards the chin, shows a man simple and foolish in managing his
affairs, vain in his discourse, envious in his nature, deceitful,
quarrelsome and rude in his conversation. A face well-coloured, full of
good features, and of an exact symmetry, and a just proportion in all
its parts, and which is delightful to look upon, is commonly the index
of a fairer mind and shows a person to be well disposed; but withal
declares that virtue is not so impregnably seated there, but that by
strong temptations (especially by the fair sex) it may be supplanted and
overcome by vice. A pale complexion, shows the person not only to be
fickle, but very malicious, treacherous, false, proud, presumptuous, and
extremely unfaithful. A face well-coloured, shows the person to be of a
praiseworthy disposition and a sound complexion, easy of belief, and
respectful to his friend, ready to do a courtesy, and very easy to be
drawn to anything.

A great head, and round, withal, denotes the person to be secret, and of
great application in carrying on business, and also ingenious and of a
large imaginative faculty and invention; and likewise laborious,
constant and honest. The head whose gullet stands forth and inclines
towards the earth, signifies a person thrifty, wise, peaceable, secret,
of a retired temper, and constant in the management of his affairs. A
long head and face, and great, withal, denotes a vain, foolish, idle and
weak person, credulous and very envious. To have one's head always
shaking and moving from side to side, denotes a shallow, weak person,
unstable in all his actions, given to lying, a great deceiver, a great
talker, and prodigal in all his fortunes. A big head and broad face,
shows a man to be very courageous, a great hunter after women, very
suspicious, bold and shameless. He who hath a very big head, but not so
proportionate as it ought to be to the body, if he hath a short neck and
crooked gullet is generally a man of apprehension, wise, secret,
ingenious, of sound judgment, faithful, true and courteous to all. He
who hath a little head, and long, slender throat, is for the most part a
man very weak, yet apt to learn, but unfortunate in his actions. And so
much shall suffice with respect to judgment from the head and face.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER III

     _Of Judgments drawn from several other parts of Man's Body._


In the body of man the head and feet are the principal parts, being the
index which heaven has laid open to every one's view to make a judgment
therefrom, therefore I have been the larger in my judgment from the
several parts thereof. But as to the other parts, I shall be much more
brief as not being so obvious to the eyes of men; yet I would proceed in
order.

The throat, if it be white, whether it be fat or lean, shows a man to be
vain-glorious, timorous, wanton, and very much subject to choler. If the
throat be so thin and lean that the veins appear, it shows a man to be
weak, slow, and a dull and heavy constitution.

A long neck shows one to have a long and slender foot, and that the
person is stiff and inflexible either to good or evil. A short neck
shows one to be witty and ingenious, but deceitful and inconstant, well
skilled in the use of arms, and yet cares not to use them, but is a
great lover of peace and quietness.

A lean shoulder bone, signifies a man to be weak, timorous, peaceful,
not laborious, and yet fit for any employment. He whose shoulder bones
are of a great bigness is commonly, by the rule of physiognomy, a strong
man, faithful but unfortunate; somewhat dull of understanding, very
laborious, a great eater and drinker, and one equally contented in all
conditions. He whose shoulder bone seems to be smooth, is by the rule of
nature, modest in his look, and temperate in all his actions, both at
bed and board. He whose shoulder bone bends, and is crooked inwardly, is
commonly a dull person and deceitful.

Long arms, hanging down and touching the knees, though such arms are
rarely seen, denotes a man liberal, but withal vain-glorious, proud and
inconstant. He whose arms are very short in respect to the stature of
his body, is thereby signified to be a man of high and gallant spirit,
of a graceful temper, bold and warlike. He whose arms are full of bones,
sinews and flesh, is a great desirer of novelties and beauties, and one
that is very credulous and apt to believe anything. He whose arms are
very hairy, whether they be lean or fat, is for the most part a
luxurious person, weak in body and mind, very suspicious and malicious
withal. He whose arms have no hair on them at all, is of a weak
judgment, very angry, vain, wanton, credulous, easily deceived himself,
yet a great deceiver of others, no fighter, and very apt to betray his
dearest friends.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER IV

     _Of Palmistry, showing the various Judgments drawn from the Hand._


Being engaged in this fourth part to show what judgment may be drawn,
according to physiognomy, from the several parts of the body, and coming
in order to speak of the hands, it has put me under the necessity of
saying something about palmistry, which is a judgment made of the
conditions, inclinations, and fortunes of men and women, from the
various lines and characters nature has imprinted in their hands, which
are almost as serious as the hands that have them.

The reader should remember that one of the lines of the hand, and which
indeed is reckoned the principal, is called the line of life; this line
encloses the thumb, separating it from the hollow of the hand. The next
to it, which is called the natural line, takes its beginning from the
rising of the forefinger, near the line of life, and reaches to the
table line, and generally makes a triangle. The table line, commonly
called the line of fortune, begins under the little finger, and ends
near the middle finger. The girdle of Venus, which is another line so
called begins near the first joint of the little finger, and ends
between the fore-finger and the middle finger. The line of death is that
which plainly appears in a counter line to that of life, and is called
the sister line, ending usually as the other ends; for when the line of
life is ended, death comes, and it can go no farther. There are lines in
the fleshy parts, as in the ball of the thumb, which is called the mount
of Venus; under each of the fingers are also mounts, which are governed
by several planets; and the hollow of the hand is called the plain of
Mars.

I proceed to give judgment from these several lines:--In palmistry, the
left hand is chiefly to be regarded, because therein the lines are most
visible, and have the strictest communication with the heart and brain.
In the next place, observe the line of life, and if it be fair, extended
to its full length, and not broken with an intermixture of cross lines,
it shows long life and health, and it is the same if a double line
appears, as there sometimes does. When the stars appear in this line, it
is a signification of great losses and calamities; if on it there be the
figures of two O's or a Q, it threatens the person with blindness; if it
wraps itself about the table line, then does it promise wealth and
honour to be attended by prudence and industry. If the line be cut and
jagged at the upper end, it denotes much sickness; if this line be cut
by any lines coming from the mount of Venus, it declares the person to
be unfortunate in love and business also, and threatens him with sudden
death. A cross below the line of life and the table line, shows the
person to be very liberal and charitable, one of a noble spirit. Let us
now see the signification of the table line.

The table line, when broad and of a lively colour, shows a healthful
constitution, and a quiet contented mind, and a courageous spirit, but
if it has crosses towards the little finger, it threatens the party with
much affliction by sickness. If the line be double, or divided into
three parts at any of the extremities, it shows the person to be of a
generous temper, and of a good fortune to support it; but if this line
be forked at the end, it threatens the person shall suffer by jealousies
and doubts, and loss of riches gotten by deceit. If three points such as
these

    * *
     *

are found in it, they denote the person prudent and liberal, a lover of
learning, and of a good temper, if it spreads towards the fore and
middle finger and ends blunt, it denotes preferment. Let us now see what
is signified by the middle line. This line has in it oftentimes (for
there is scarce a hand in which it varies not) divers very significant
characters. Many small lines between this and the table line threaten
the party with sickness, and also gives him hopes of recovery. A half
cross branching into this line, declares the person shall have honour,
riches, and good success in all his undertakings. A half moon denotes
cold and watery distempers; but a sun or star upon this line, denotes
prosperity and riches; this line, double in a woman, shows she will have
several husbands, but no children.

[Illustration]

The line of Venus, if it happens to be cut or divided near the
forefinger, threatens ruin to the party, and that it shall befall him by
means of lascivious women and bad company. Two crosses upon the line,
one being on the forefinger and the other bending towards the little
finger, show the party to be weak, and inclined to modesty and virtue,
indeed it generally denotes modesty in women; and therefore those who
desire such, usually choose them by this standard.

The liver line, if it be straight and crossed by other lines, shows the
person to be of a sound judgment, and a piercing understanding, but if
it be winding, crooked and bending outward, it draws deceit and
flattery, and the party is not to be trusted. If it makes a triangle or
quadrangle, it shows the person to be of a noble descent, and ambitious
of honour and promotion. If it happens that this line and the middle
line begin near each other, it denotes a person to be weak in his
judgment, if a man; but if a woman, in danger by hard labour.

The plain of Mars being in the hollow of the hand, most of the lines
pass through it, which renders it very significant. This plain being
crooked and distorted, threatens the party to fall by his enemies. When
the lines beginning at the wrist are long within the plain, reaching to
the brawn of the hand, that shows the person to be much given to
quarrelling, often in broils and of a hot and fiery spirit, by which he
suffers much damage. If deep and long crosses be in the middle of the
plain, it shows the party shall obtain honour by martial exploits; but
if it be a woman, she shall have several husbands and easy labour with
her children.

The line of Death is fatal, when crosses or broken lines appear in it;
for they threaten the person with sickness and a short life. A clouded
moon appearing therein, threatens a child-bed woman with death. A bloody
spot in the line, denotes a violent death. A star like a comet,
threatens ruin by war, and death by pestilence. But if a bright sun
appears therein, it promises long life and prosperity.

As for the lines of the wrist being fair, they denote good fortune; but
if crossed and broken, the contrary.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER V

     _Judgments according to Physiognomy, drawn from the several parts
     of the Body, from the Hands to the Feet._


A large and full breast, shows a man valiant and courageous, but withal
proud and hard to deal with, quickly angry, and very apprehensive of an
injury; he whose breast is narrow, and which riseth a little in the
middle of it, is, by the best rule of physiognomy, of a clear spirit, of
a great understanding, good in counsel, very faithful, clean both in
mind and body, yet as an enemy to this, he is soon angry, and inclined
long to keep it. He whose breast is somewhat hairy, is very luxurious,
and serviceable to another. He who hath no hair upon his breast, is a
man weak by nature, of a slender capacity and very timorous, but of a
laudable life and conversation, inclined to peace, and much retired to
himself.

The back of the chin bone, if the flesh be anything hairy and lean, and
higher than any other part that is behind, signifies a man shameless,
beastly and withal malicious. He whose back is large, big and fat, is
thereby denoted to be a strong and stout man, but of a heavy
disposition, vain, slow and full of deceit.

He or she whose belly is soft over all the body, is weak, lustful, and
fearful upon little or no occasion, of a good understanding, and an
excellent invention, but little eaters, faithful, but of various
fortune, and meet with more adversity than prosperity. He whose flesh is
rough and hard, is a man of strong constitution and very bold, but vain,
proud and of a cruel temper. A person whose skin is smooth, fat and
white, is a person, curious, vain-glorious, timorous, shame-faced,
malicious, false, and too wise to believe all he hears.

A thigh, full of strong, bristly hair, and the hair inclined to curl,
signifies one lustful, licentious, and fit for copulation. Thighs with
but little hair, and those soft and slender, show the person to be
reasonably chaste, and one that has no great desire to coition, and who
will have but few children.

The legs of both men and women have a fleshy substance behind, which are
called calves, which nature hath given them (as in our book of living
creatures we have observed), in lieu of those long tails which other
creatures have pendant behind. Now a great calf, and he whose legs are
of great bone, and hair withal, denotes the person to be strong, bold,
secure, dull in understanding and slow in business, inclined to
procreation, and for the most part fortunate in his undertakings.
Little legs, and but little hair on them, show the person to be weak,
fearful, of a quick understanding, and neither luxurious at bed nor
board. He whose legs do much abound with hair, shows he has great store
in another place, and that he is lustful and luxurious, strong, but
unstable in his resolution, and abounding with ill humours.

The feet of either men or women, if broad and thick with flesh, and long
in figure, especially if the skin feels hard, they are by nature of a
strong constitution, and gross nutriment, but of weak intellect, which
renders the understanding vain. But feet that are thin and lean, and of
a soft skin, show the person to be but weak of body, but of a strong
understanding and an excellent wit.

The soles of the feet do administer plain and evident signs, whereby the
disposition and constitution of men and women may be known, as do the
palms of their hands, as being full of lines, by which lines all the
fortunes and misfortunes of men and women may be known, and their
manners and inclinations made plainly to appear. But this in general we
may take notice, as that many long lines and strokes do presage great
affliction, and a very troublesome life, attended with much grief and
toil, care, poverty, and misery; but short lines, if they are thick and
full of cross lines, are yet worse in every degree. Those, the skin of
whose soles is very thick and gross, are, for the most part, able,
strong and venturous. Whereas, on the contrary, those the skin of whose
soles of their feet is thin, are generally weak and timorous.

I shall now, before I conclude (having given an account of what
judgments may be made by observing the several parts of the body, from
the crown of the head to the soles of the feet), give an account of what
judgments may be drawn by the rule of physiognomy from things extraneous
which are found upon many, and which indeed to them are parts of the
body, but are so far from being necessary parts that they are the
deformity and burden of it, and speak of the habits of the body, as they
distinguish persons.



_Of Crooked and Deformed Persons._

A crooked breast and shoulder, or the exuberance of flesh in the body
either of man or woman, signifies the person to be extremely
parsimonious and ingenious, and of a great understanding, but very
covetous and scraping after the things of the world, attended also with
a very bad memory, being also very deceitful and malicious; they are
seldom in a medium, but either virtuous or extremely vicious. But if
the person deformed hath an excrescence on his breast instead of on the
back, he is for the most part of a double heart, and very mischievous.



_Of the divers Manners of going, and particular Posture both of Men and
Women._

He or she that goes slowly, making great steps as they go, are generally
persons of bad memory, and dull of apprehension, given to loitering, and
not apt to believe what is told them. He who goes apace, and makes short
steps, is most successful in all his undertakings, swift in his
imagination, and humble in the disposition of his affairs. He who makes
wide and uneven steps, and sidelong withal, is one of a greedy, sordid
nature, subtle, malicious, and willing to do evil.



_Of the Gait or Motion in Men and Women._

Every man hath a certain gait or motion, and so in like manner hath
every woman; for a man to be shaking his head, or using any light motion
with his hands or feet, whether he stands or sits, or speaks, is always
accompanied with an extravagant motion, unnecessary, superfluous and
unhandsome. Such a man, by the rule of physiognomy is vain, unwise,
unchaste, a detractor, unstable and unfaithful. He or she whose motion
is not much when discoursing with any one, is for the most part wise and
well bred, and fit for any employment, ingenious and apprehensive,
frugal, faithful and industrious in business. He whose posture is
forwards and backwards, or, as it were, whisking up and down, mimical,
is thereby denoted to be a vain, silly person, of a heavy and dull wit,
and very malicious. He whose motion is lame and limping, or otherwise
imperfect, or that counterfeits an imperfection is denoted to be
envious, malicious, false and detracting.



_Judgment drawn from the Stature of Man._

Physiognomy draws several judgments also from the stature of man, which
take as followeth; if a man be upright and straight, inclined rather to
leanness than fat, it shows him to be bold, cruel, proud, clamorous,
hard to please, and harder to be reconciled when displeased, very
frugal, deceitful, and in many things malicious. To be of tall stature
and corpulent with it, denotes him to be not only handsome but valiant
also, but of no extraordinary understanding, and which is worst of all,
ungrateful and trepanning. He who is extremely tall and very lean and
thin is a projecting man, that designs no good to himself, and suspects
every one to be as bad as himself, importunate to obtain what he
desires, and extremely wedded to his own humour. He who is thick and
short, is vain, envious, suspicious, and very shallow of apprehension,
easy of belief, but very long before he will forget an injury. He who is
lean and short but upright withal, is, by the rules of physiognomy, wise
and ingenious, bold and confident, and of a good understanding, but of a
deceitful heart. He who stoops as he goes, not so much by age as custom,
is very laborious, a retainer of secrets, but very incredulous and not
easy to believe every vain report he hears. He that goes with his belly
stretching forth, is sociable, merry, and easy to be persuaded.

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER VI

     _Of the Power of the Celestial Bodies over Men and Women._


Having spoken thus largely of Physiognomy, and the judgment given
thereby concerning the dispositions and inclinations of men and women,
it will be convenient here to show how all these things come to pass;
and how it is that the secret inclinations and future fate of men and
women may be known from the consideration of the several parts of the
bodies. They arise from the power and dominion of superior powers to
understand the twelve signs of the Zodiac, whose signs, characters and
significations are as follows:--

[Illustration]

_Aries_, the Ram, which governs the head and face.

_Taurus_, the Bull, which governs the neck.

_Gemini_, the Twins, which governs the hands and arms.

_Cancer_, the Crab, governs the breast and stomach.

_Leo_, the Lion, governs the back and heart

_Virgo_, the Virgin, governs the belly and bowels.

_Libra_, the Balance, governs the veins and loins.

_Scorpio_, the Scorpion, governs the secret parts.

_Sagittary_, the Centaur, governs the thighs.

_Capricorn_, the Goat, governs the knees.

_Aquarius_, the Water-Bearer, governs the legs and ankles.

_Pisces_, the Fish, governs the feet.

It is here furthermore necessary to let the reader know, that the
ancients have divided the celestial sphere into twelve parts, according
to the number of these signs, which are termed houses; as in the first
house, Aries, in the second Taurus, in the third Gemini, etc. And
besides their assigning the twelve signs of the twelve houses, they
allot to each house its proper business.

To the first house they give the signification of life.

The second house has the signification of wealth, substances, or riches.

The third is the mansion of brethren.

The fourth, the house of parentage.

The fifth is the house of children.

The sixth is the house of sickness or disease.

The seventh is the house of wedlock, and also of enemies, because
oftentimes a wife or husband proves the worst enemy.

The eighth is the house of death.

The ninth is the house of religion.

The tenth is the signification of honours.

The eleventh of friendship.

The twelfth is the house of affliction and woe.

Now, astrologically speaking, a house is a certain place in the heaven
or firmament, divided by certain degrees, through which the planets have
their motion, and in which they have their residence and are situated.
And these houses are divided by thirty degrees, for every sign has so
many degrees. And these signs or houses are called the houses of such
and such planets as make their residence therein, and are such as
delight in them, and as they are deposited in such and such houses are
said to be either dignified or debilitated. For though the planets in
their several revolutions go through all the houses, yet there are some
houses which they are more properly said to delight in. As for instance,
Aries and Scorpio are the houses of Mars; Taurus and Libra of Venus;
Gemini and Virgo of Mercury; Sagittarius and Pisces are the houses of
Jupiter; Capricorn and Aquarius are the houses of Saturn; Leo is the
house of the Sun; and Cancer is the house of the Moon.

Now to sum up the whole, and show how this concerns Physiognomy, is
this:--as the body of man, as we have shown, is not only governed by the
signs and planets, but every part is appropriated to one or another of
them, so according to the particular influence of each sign and planet,
so governing is the disposition, inclination, and nature of the person
governed. For such and such tokens and marks do show a person to be born
under such and such a planet; so according to the nature, power and
influences of the planets, is the judgment to be made of that person. By
which the reader may see that the judgments drawn from physiognomy are
grounded upon a certain verity.









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