Chapter I: 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, though 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.

SECT. I. _Of the Hot Distemper of the Womb._

This 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 disperseth its heat and hinders the conception. This preternatural heat is sometimes from the birth, and causes barrenness; but if it be accidental, it is from hot causes, that bring the heat and the blood to the womb; it arises from internal and external medicines, and from too much hot meat, drink, and exercise. Those that are troubled with this distemper have but few menses, and those are yellow, black, burnt, or sharp; are 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 hypochondriacs, and for the most part barren, having sometimes a frenzy of the womb.

_Cure._—The remedy is to use coolers, so that they offend not the vessels that must open 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 conserve of succory, violets, water lilies, burrage, each an ounce; conserve of roses, half an ounce, diamargation frigid, diatriascancal, 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, narvel, 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, she may sleep as long as she pleases.

SECT. II. _Of the Cold Distemper 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. 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 hard to be cured.

_Cure._—Take galengal, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, each two drachms; ginger, cubebs, nedory, cardamum, each an ounce; grains of paradise, long pepper, each half an ounce; beat them, and put them into six quarts of wine for eight days; then add sage, mint, balm, mother-wort, of each three handfuls: let them stand eight days more, then pour off the wine, and beat the herbs and the spice, and then pour off the wine again, and distil them. Or you may use this: take cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, mace, ginger, cubebs, cardamum, 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, bays, cinnamon, cloves, mace, and nutmeg. Let her diet and air be warm, her meat of easy concoction, seasoned with aniseed, fennel, and thyme; and let her avoid raw fruits and milk diet.

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 tunicles, 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 conception, let them observe the signs of the pregnant woman 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 this is a further sign, that in conception the swelling is invariable; also if you strike upon the belly, in an inflation, there will be a 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 in the abdomen, 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, 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 fulness of blood, let the saphæna 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; diacinium, diaganel, 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 angus 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 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 vessels of the womb, and the neck thereof. The causes of this straitness are thick and rough humours, that stop the mouth 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, schirrous, or other tumours; sometimes by compressions, scars, or by flesh and membranes that grow after a wound. The signs by which this is known are, the stoppage of the terms, not conceiving, and crudities abounding in the body, which are all shown by particular signs; for if there is a wound, or the secundine pulled out by force, phlegm comes from the wound; if stoppage of the terms be from an old obstruction by 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 schirrous, 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 may be let blood, as will be hereafter directed in the stoppage of the terms. Then use the following medicine: take of aniseed and fennel seed, each a drachm; rosemary, pennyroyal, calamint, betony flowers, each an ounce; saffron, half a drachm, with wine. Or take asparagus roots, parsley roots, each an ounce; pennyroyal, calamint, each a handful; wall-flowers, 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; rosemary, bays, camomile-flowers, each a handful; boil them in water, and foment the groin and bottom of the abdomen; or let her sit up to the navel in a bath, and then anoint about the groin with oil of rue, lilies, dill, &c.

SECT. V. _Of the Falling of the Womb._

This is another evil effect of the womb, which is both very troublesome, and also an hinderance 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, that come from the peritoneum, and two below, that are nervous, 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 veins 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 connection of the fibrous neck and 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 in 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, like a skin stretched, or a weight felt upon 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 abdomen, 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, oftentime proving mortal, especially if it happen to pregnant women.

_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 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 a decoction of mallows, althæa, 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, a drachm; pomegranate flowers, sanguis draconis, 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 to both kidneys, and lay this plaster to the back: take opoponax, 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 half 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; worm-seed, two handfuls; pomegranate flowers, half an ounce; boil them in wine and water. For an injection take comfrey root an ounce; rupture work, 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 a drachm; myrrh, half a drachm; make a powder for 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 menses, a worse mischief follow. To keep it 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.