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NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
       Bethesda, Maryland
 
 

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AriftotWs   Mdfter   Piece

       COMPLETED.
In  Two  PARTS.
The Firft, containing the Secrets of Generati-

          on in all the Parts thereof.

                TREATING,

Of the Benefit of Marriage,  and the Prejudice of unequal. Matches)
  Signs of Infufficiency in Men and Women :—Of the Infufion of the
  Soul:—Of the likenefs of Children to  Parents :—Of monftrous
  Births:—The Caufe and Cure of the green Sicknefs, aDifcouife on
  Virginity :-—Directions and Cautions for  Midwives :—Of the Or-
  gans of Generation in Women,  and the Fabric of the Womb, The
  Ufe and Action of the Genitals.—Signs of Conception, and whe-
  ther a Male or Female; with a Word of Advice to both Sexes in the
  Act of Copulation. And the Picture of feveral monftrous Births, &c«



               The  Second  PART.

A Private Looking-GIafs for the Female Sex, treating of the various
  Maladies of the Womb, and all other Diftempers incident to Wo-
  men of all Ages, with proper Remedies for the Cure of each.  Thj
  whole  being more con eft than any Thing of this Kind hitherta
  publiihed.
              N  E  W -  Y  O  R' K:

PRINTED for the UNITED  COMPANY-  ci
           FLYIN'G  STATIONERS.

                   M DCC LXXXVIII. 
                                        ion.

  TTF one of the nnnAt capacity were a1;cd, What'was the vvonJcr
  _£.  the V.'oi! .1 ? 1 think the moil  proper anfwer would be iis n.  II
  U-.r 3 the little Wjild,  to. wh \n all things are iubordinatc ;  r.gr.A.nj
  in t!i. j".iiu , w'.th fcn(i:ive t'Tin0; ; all being animals, Lut d.iAwit* in
  enc i^cAe,.   For Man alone is endow;! with reafan.
    And thcrAoio the Dc.cy at flan's creAion (as the infpired-Penman
  tells u>) f»id, " Lcr us ma'^cMan in our own ima^e,  that he may be
  "  (as a Creature majr be) like LA, and the fame in As likewife, may
  b; our imajc : -Some of the Fathers do diftinguifh,  as if by the image
  try; Lord doth plant the rcafonabfe pj.verjof the foul,  reafon,  will, and
  rxi'.mory,  :.i\d by U:-:encfi, the qualities of the mind, Charity, Ju(lice,
 "Pa*'.en:*,  &c.  .Cat Maft-j confounded this distinction,   (if you com-
  pr:_t.»efe tetts  of Scripture) Gen. i. 17 and v. 5.  i.  Colon", x. Eph.
  v. 14.   Aid  the Apoitle, where he faith,  " He was created after the
  "  .ifi^e of G-id in knowledge, and the fame in righteoufnefs and ho-
  " lii;; i,."  'i iii; Creeks there reprefent  him, as one tun nj his eye3
  jy.vaid., towards L'.m, whofe iw^e and fuperfeviption he btarj.
^            Sec how the Heaven's high Architect,
               Hath fram'd him in this wife,
             '1A !lar,d,  to go,  to  look c;ct,
                With bady, face, and eye;.

     A  i Cici'ra fay?, like Mofes,  all creatures were mil^ to rat on the
  TAr.h except  Man, to  whom was given an upright frame to contem-
  plate his Maker, and b^pold the manfion prepared forjiim  ab;ve.
     Now- to the end  that  fojioble an J glorious a creature might not quite
  periih, ic-pleafed God to jjvs unto Woman the fkld of generation f'-r
  -a receptive cf hum?.n feed; whereby that natural and vegetable foul,
  •x'.i'.ch lies ;) )tcntjaliy in the feed, may by  the plaftick power be r Auced
  ;nto act :  That man who is a mortal creature by leaving  his  offspring
  behind him,  may  become immortal, and  furvive in  his pofteiity.
     And becaufe  this field of generation, the womb istheylaec where
  this excellent creature is formed,  and that in  fo wonderful a  manner,
  that the  R.->y>l PAlmift  (having meditated thereon) cries out as one in
  :xtaf;,  "  lam fearfully and wonderfully  made."   It  will be necefla-
  </ to treat largely thereon In this book, '.Yich,  to  that end,  is divided
  ?Mo two  parts : The fi.ft wherecf treats of the manner and  parts of ge-
  nnvtion kAooth fexes;  for from the mutual ds^ire they have  to each
  ui'/ur, v/hAh nature has imRanted  in them to that  end,  t'ist delight
  whAU theytake in the  act of copulation,   does the  whole race of man-
  kind proceed : And a particular accoui.c oTF what things are previous to
  r'aat ait,  and a!fj  what are confequentlal €S it,  anl how each member
   concer >ed in it is  adapted, and  fitted to  that  V« eric, to which nature
   h i3 defined  it.  And  though in  uttering of thofe things, fomething
   —.ay be laid which thofe that are unclean may make bad ufe. of, and
   ■.'2 .t as a motive  to ftir up their beftial appetites;  "y.et  fuch may know
   •'. .'t this was .ievcr intended for them ; n-^r do  1 know  any re a fon. that
   t!'.:~fe f>ber pef ns- for  w'.irf-' ufe this was  meant,  iiiould want the help
   hereby defined them,  becaufj vain !ooi> perfans will be r.vV.y to abufe

      Tj: f;co.il pj'-tof .lih T:e:itifc h  v. 1,.Ay defined  Ar  ih<: Female
Introducl 
INTRODUCTION.
7
Sex,  and does lar-ely not only treat of .the diftempers of the Womb,
and the various cr.afe;, but  alfo give  you proper remedies for the cure
of them : For fuch is the ignorance of moft women, that  when by any
diftemper thofe parts  are afflicted, they  neither know from whence it
pr^teeds nor haw co apply a  remedy;  and fuch  is  their  modefty alfo,
that they are unwilling to afk, that they may be informed.   And for
the help of fuch this is defigned, for having my being from a Woman
I thought none had more right to the  grapes than ftie that planted the
vine.                        ^
  And therefore obferving that among all difeafes  incident to the bo-
dy, there are none more frequent and perilous, than thofe that do arife
from the ill ftate of the  Womb,  fir through the evil quality thereof,
the heart,  the liver,  and the brain ari affected,  from whencp the acti-
ons,  vital, natural,  and animal, are hurt; and the virtues concoctive,
fanguinificative, diftributive,  r.ttrattive, expulfive, retentive, with the
reft are all weakened ; fo that from the Wo-nb,  come convulfions, epi-
lepfis,  apoplexys, palfies and  fevers,  dropfies, malighant ulcers, ,&c.
And there is no dileafe fo bad, but may grow worfe from the evil qua-
lity of it.         *
   How neceif.ry therefore is the knowledge  of  thefe things, let every
unprejudiced Reader judge,  for that many Women labour undi  th:m,
through their ignorance and modefty (as  I faid before) woeful experi-
ence makes rnanifeft : Her* therefore (as in a mirror) they may be ac.
quainted with their own diftempers, and have fuitable remedies, with-
out applying themfelves to Phyiicianb, againft which they Lave A great
reluctance.




        Ariftotle's   Mafter-Piecc,     .

                 COMPLETED.

          PART    the   FL^RST.

                 CHAP.    I.

Of Marriage,  and at what Age ycung  Men and  Virgins pre
   capable of it;  And ivhy.they fo  much defire it:  And hon.0
   lung Men and Women  are capable of having Children.

     TMIERE are  very few (except fomeprofefl: debauchees')
        but what will readily agree, that marriage is honor-
able to all, being  ordain'd by heaven in  parad.fe, «nd with-
out which  no man or woman can be in  a capacAy honeltly
to yield obedience to the firft Law of the Creation, increafe
zu i  nv-lti'V.y :  And fine: it is natural  in young  people u 
$                Ariflotlfs  Mafler-fiece

defire tfoefe mutual  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 re-
ftrain their  affections, and oppofe their inclinations, (wbich
inltead of allaying them, makes them but the more impetu-
ous) but rather  provide fuch  fuitable matches for tnem, as
may make their lives comfortable, left the croffing of their^
inclinations fhould precipitate them to commit thofe follies
that may bring an indeliableftain upon their  families.
  The inclinations of maids to marriage, is to be known by
many fymptoms, for when they arrive at puberity, which is
about the 14th or 1 5th year of their  age, then their natural
purgations begin to flow, and the blood which is no longer
taken to augment their  bodies, abounding,  ftirs up  their
minds to venery ; External caufes alfo may incite them to it;
for  their fpirirs being brifk/and inflamed when  they arrive
at this age,  if they eat hard fait things., andjp'ces, the body
becomes more .tr.d more heated, whereby the defire to ve-
rieral embraces  is very great, and fometimes almoft infuper-
able.  And the ufe of this fo much defired employment be-
ing denied  to  virgins, many  times  is followed  by difmal
cor.fequences, as a green wefel colour, fhort  breathings,
tremblings  of the heart,  Sec. Cut when they are married,
and  th.-ir vencr-.il difires  fatisfied by  the enjoyment of their
humane?, thofe diCerj.pers vanifh and they become more gay
and  i'.vely than before; Alfo their eager llaringat men, and
afftcYnig their company, fhews that nature pufhes them up-
on coition,  and their parents neglecting  to  get them  hus-
bands, they break through modefty,  to fatisfy themfelves in
unlawful embraces;  it is the fame in briflc  widows,  who
csnnot be  fatisfied without the benevolence which  their
hufbands ufed to give them.
  At the age of 14, the Menfes  in virgins begin to flow,
when they   re capable of conceiving, and continue general-
ly to 44, when they cea^* bearing,  unlefs  their bodies are  ,
ftrongand healthful, which fometimes enables them to bear
at 55.   But many times the menfes  proceed  from fome vio-
lence offered to nature, or fome morbific matter  which often
proves fatal to the party, and therefore thofe men  that are
defuoujof iflue, mult marry  a woman within the age afore-
faid, or blame themfelves if they meet with diff-ippointments:
Though, if an old ir.annct worn out by dife&fes and incon- 
Completed.                      9
 tinency, marry abrifk lively lafs, there  is hopes of his hav-
 ing children to ihreefcofe and ten, nay  fometimes till four-
 fcore.
   yippoeratc; holds,  that a yctfth at 15 years old,  or be-
 tween that and 17, having mudr \ ital ftrength, is capable of
 getting children ;  and alfo,  t-hat  the force of procreating
 matter, incrcafes till 45, 50, and 55, and then begins to flag,
 the feed by degrees becoming unfruitful, the natural fpirits
 being extinguished, and the humors dried up. Thus in ge-
 neralrbuf as to particulars, it often falls out otherwife. Nay,
 it is reported by a credible author, that  in Swcdiand, a man
 was married at a ico years toabride of 30, and had many-
 children by h-.r, but his countenance was fo frefh, that thofe
 that knew  him net, toqk him not to exceed  50.  And in
 Campania where the air is clear and temperate, men of 80
 years old marry young virgies,  and have children by them ;
 fnewing that age in them  hinders not procreation, unlefs
 they be exharjfted in their youth, and their yards fhrivellM
 up.
   If any would know why a woman is focner barren than a
 man, they may be aflured that the natural heat, which is the
 cau A  of generation, is more predominant in the latter than
 in the former: For fince a woman is truly  more moid than
' a man, as her monthly purgations demonftrate, as alfo the
 fohnefs of her body, it is alfo apparent,  that he doth not ex-
 ceed her in natural heat, which is- the chief thing that con-
 cocts  the humors  into proper aliment, which  the  woman
 vvar.ting, grows fat, when a man  through his  native heat
 me'ts his fat by degree-,'and his humors are diifolved, and
 by the beneiit thereof are elaborated into feed.  And this
 may alfo be fcdded that women generally are not fo ftrong as
 men, nor fo  wife nor prudent, nor have fo much reafon and
 ingenuity  in ordering affairs;  which  fhews that thereby
 their faculties are hindered in operations.

                     CHAP.   II.

 Hovj to get a male or female child*, and of the emlroyo and per -
       feci birth; and tBe ftteft Time for Copulation.
      WrHEN a young couple are married,  they natural!)'
        defire childreny'and therefore ufe thofe  means thac
 r.Aure has.  appointed to  that end: But  noUvkhfUnding 
lO               Jriflotles Majler-Piece
             4
their endeavours, they muft know the fuccefs of all depend s
on a bleffingof the Lord;  not only fo, but the fex, whether
male or female, is from his difpofal alfo :  Though it cannot
be denied, but fecondary caufes have influence  therein, ef-
peciaily two, Firft, The genetal humour, which is brought
by the Arterh Prceparantes to the Teltes, in form  of blood,
and there elaborated into feed, by  the feminifical faculty re-
ading in th^m :  To which may be added the defire of coi-
tion, which  fires the imagination  with unufual fancies, and
by the fight of brifk charming beauty, may foon inflame the
appetite: But if nature be infeebled, fuch meats  muft  be
eaten as wiil conduce to the affording fuch aliment as makes
the feed abound and reSores  the decays of nature, that the
faculties ma? freely operate,  and remove impediments ob-
ftructing the procrestion of children.
  Then fince dkt alters the evil ltate of the body to a better,
thofe who are fubject to barrennefs,  muft eat fuch meats as
are of good juice, that nourifh well, making the body lively,
and full of  fap of which faculty  are all hot moilt me-.ts:
For according to Galen, feed is made of pure concodtcd, and
windy fuperfluity of blood,  where we may conclude there
is 2 power in  many things to accumulate feed, alfo to aug-
ment it, and other thing* of force to  caufe erection, as hen-
eggs, pheafants, wood cocks, gnat-fnappers, thrufhes, black-
birds, young pigeons,fparrows, partridges, capons,  almonds,
pine-nuts, raifins,currants, all ftrong wines, taken fparingly,
especially thofe made of  the grapes of Italy.  But erection is
chiefly caufed by fcttraum, eringoes, creffes, cryfmon,  parf-
nips, artichokes,  turnips,  rapes, afparagus, candied ginger,
galings, acorns brtiifed to powder, drank in mufcadel, fcal-
lion, lea fhell fifrf, Sec.   But thefe mult have  time  to per-
form their operation, and  muft ufe them for a confiderable
time, or you will reap but little benefit by them.  The art
of coition being over, let the woman repole  herfelf on her
right fide, with her head lying low,  and her body declining,
that by fleeping in that pofture, the call on the  right fide of
the'rnatrix may  prove the place of conception, for  therein is
the greatelt generative heat, which is  the chief procuring
caufe  of male children, and rarely  fails the expedtationof
thofe thatexperi-er.ee it, efpecially if they do but keep warm
without much motion,  leaning to the right, and drinking a
little fpirit of faffrcn, and juice of hyfop in a glafs of nula- 
              '1B^^ "Completed.                      u

ga, oralicantj when they ly down and arife, for the fpace of
a week.
   For a  female  child, let a woman ly on  the  left fide,
ftrongly fancying a female  in the time of procreation, drink-
ing the decoction of lemale mercury four days, from the firft
day of purgation, the male mercury, having the like opera-
tion in cafe of a male : For this concoction purges the right
and left fide of the womb, opens the receptacles, and makes
way for the feminary, of generation to  bege: a female, the
bcft time is,  when  the moon  is in the  wane, in Libra or
Aquarius.   Advicene fays, "  When the Menfes fpent, and
*'  the womb cleanfed, which is commonly in five, or feven
"  days at molt,  if a man  lye  with his wife from  the firft
<l  day fhe is purged to the fifth, fhe will  conceive a  male,
*'  but from the fifth to the eight, a female ;  and  from the
*'  eighth to the twelfth, a male again.  But  after that per-
"  haps neither  diitindlly, but both in a Hermaphrodite."
In a word, they  that would be happy in the fruits  of their
labour, muftobferve to  ufe  copulation  in due diftance of
time, not too often  nor too feldom, for  both are alike  hurt-.-  ■*
ful; and to ufe it immediately  weakens  and waftcs  their
fpirits, and ipoils the feed  ; and thus much for the firft par-
ticular.  The fecond is to let the reader know how the child
is  formed in the  womb,  what accident it is liable  to there,
how nourifhed and brought forth.
   There  are  various opinions  concerning  this matter:
Therefore I will fhew what the learned fay about it: Man
confifts of an egg, which is impregnated in the Thefticles
of the Woman, by the more fubtile parts of the more fubtile
part of the man's feed, but the forming faculty and virtue
in the feed is a Divine gift, it being abundantly endued with
a vital fpin't, which gives  fap and form to the embryo : So
fhat all parts and bulk of the body, which is made  up in
a few months, and gradually formed into the lovely  figure
of a min,  doconfift in, and are adumbrated thereby, which
is  incomparably  exprefied in the cxxxviii. Pfalm, " I will
"  praife  thee, O Lord, becaufe I am wonderfully made,
■'  &c."and the phyficianshave flighted  four different times,
wherein a man is framed and perfected in the  womb, the
&rft moon after coition being perfected  in the firft week, if
no flux happens, which  fometimes falls out through the
Uipprincfs  of the Matrix of the head thereof, that fhifts 
 I ?. ■                 Arifotle's llafer-puce

 over like a rcfe.bud,  and  opens  on a fudden,  by  means of
'forming, is affigned to be when nature makes  marifeft mu-
 tation in the conceptior, fo that ail the fubftance feems con-
 gealed flefh snd  blood which happens twelve or fear teen
 days  after copulation.   And  though this  flefhy mafs  a-
 bounds with  fiery blood, yet It  remains undiftinguifhable,
 without form or figure, and may  be called an Embryo; and
 compared to feed  fown  in the ground, which  though  heat
 and moiiture grows by degrees into a perfect form, either in
 plant or grain.   The third time  affigned to make up this
 fabrick,  is when the principal parts (hew themfelves  plain ;
 as the  heart whence  proceed the  arteries.  The brain from
 which the nerves, like fma.ll  threads, run through ihe whole
 body,  and the liver, that divides the chyle  from the blood
 brought to it by  the Venna  Porta, the two firft are foun-
 tains of life that nourifh every part of the body, in framing
 which, the faculty of the womb is buried from the concep-
 tion,  to the eight day of the firft month.
   Laftly, about  the thirtieth day,  the outward parts  are
 feen finely wrought, and diftinguifhed by joints,  when the
 child begins to grow, from which-time, by reafon the limbs
 are divided, and the whole  frame is perfect, it is no longer
 an Embryo but a perfect  child, moft males  are  perfect by
 the thirtieth day, but females feldom to the forty-fecond or
 forty-fifth day, becaufe the  heat of the womb is greater in
 producing the male than the  female;  and for the fame rea-
 fon, a woman going with a  male child, quickens in three
 months, bpt going with  a  female  rarely  under four, it
 which time alfo its hair and  nails come forth,  and the child
 begins to ftir, kick,  and  move in the womb, and then the
 women are troubled  with loathing of their meat,  and  greedy
 longing for things contrary to nutriment,  as coals, rubbifh,
 chalk, Sic.   Which defire  often occafions  obortions  and
 mifcarriage, fome women  have been fo extravagant as to
 long  for  hob-nails,  leather, man's flefh, horfe  flefh,  and
 ether unnatural as well as unwholefome food, for wai.t of
 which things they have either mifcar-ried, or the child has
 continued dead in the womb for many days, to the eminent
 hazard of their lives.  But I fhall now proceed to (hew. by
 what real jr.cans the infent  is fuftained in'the womb, an<l
 what pofture it there remains in.
   Various are the opinions  about nourifhing the foetus  in- 
Completed.
missing pages 13-14 
17
Anf.ottis Maf.er-pim
\ 
Completed.
lS
head turned fomewhat oblique, that their fv.ces may be feen,
but the female children, with their faces upwards ; though
fometimes ic happens, that births do  not follow, according
to nature's order, but children com:  forth with  their  feet
Handing, their  necks  bowed,  and their  heads lying ob-
lique; with their  hands ftrctched out, which  greatly en-
dangers themfelves  and the in )t her,  giving the  midwife
greactrouble to bring them  into the world; but  when  all
things proceed in nature's order,  the  child when  the time
of birch  is accomplifhed, is defirous  to come forth of the
womb, and by inclining himfelf he rolls downwards,  for he
can no more be obfcured in thfie  hidden places,  and the
heat of the heart cannot fnbfift without external  rcfpiration,
whereof being grown great,  more and  more defirous cf nu-
triment  and  light,  when  coveting  the  ./Ethcrial air,  by
ftruggling to obtain it, breaks the membranes and coverings,
whereby he was reftrained and fenced againfl attrition, and
for the molt part with bitter pangs of the mother, iflueth
forth into the world commonly in the ninth month.   For
the matrix being divided, and the Os Pubis loofened, the
woman ftrives to caft out her burden,  and the child does the
like to get forth, by  the help of its inbred ftrength, and fo
the birth comes to be perfect; but if the child be dead, the
more dangerous the delivery, though nature often helps the
woman's weaknefs herein :  But the child that is  quick and
lively  labours no  lefs  than the woman.  Now  there 'are
births at  feven or eight  months, and fome  ;vo;r>en go  to the
tenth month; but of thefe  and the  reaforrs of them I fhaJI
fpeak more largely in another place.

              CHAP.     III.

The Reafon nuhy Children are like their Parents, and that the
   Mother s Imagination contribute  thereto, and ivhether the
   Man or Woman is the Caufe of the Male or Female Child.
     LACTANTIUS  is of opinion, that when, a man's feed
      falls on the left  fide of the womb,  it may procure a
mile child ;  but becaule it  is the proper place for a female,
there will be fomething in  it that relembles a Woman, that
is, it will be fairer,  whiter,  and fmoother, not very fubject
to have hair on the body or chin ;  it will  have lank hair on
thehead, the voice fmall and fharp, and the courage feeble; 
 »6                ArijIotWs Majler-piece

 and onnlje contrary, that a female may chance to be gotten
 if the feed fall on the right fide ; but then t-hrough the abun-
 dance of heat fhefhall be big boned,  full  of courage, hav-
 ing a mafculine voice,  and her  chin and bofom  hairy, not
 being fo clear as  others of that fex, and iubjedt  to quarrel
 with her hufband for fuperiority.
   In cafe of fimilitude, nothing is more powerful than the
 imagination of the mother j  for if fhe faften  her eyes upon
 any  object,  and  imprint  it on her mind, it oftimrs  fo hap-
 pens,  that the child in fome part or other of its body,  has a
 representation thereof,  and if in  the aft of copulation, the
 woman tarneftly look upon the man, and fix her mind  upon
 him, the child  will  refemble its father.   Nay, though a
 woman in unlawful copulation, yet if fhe fix her mind up-
 on her hufband,  the child will refemble him, though he ne-
 ver gat it.   The fame effect  of imagination  caufes warts,
 {trains, mchh-fpofs, daftes, though  indeed  they  fometimes
 happcruhrough frights, or extravagant  longing; many  wo-
 men being with child, feeing a hare crofs them, will through
 the force of imagination, bring forth  a child with a hairy
 lip.   Some children are  born with flat nofes,  wry mouths,
 great blubber lips,  and ill fhaped bodies ; and mult afcribe
 the reafen to the imagination oi the mother, who hath caft
 her eyes and mind upon fome ill fhaped creatures:  There-
 fore it behoves all women with  child  if  poflible, to avoid
 fi-'.h fights, or at leaft  not regard  them.   But though the
 mother's imagination may contribute much to the features
 of the child, yet in manners, wit, and propenfion of the
 mind,  experience ttLs us, that children are  commonly of
 the condition with  the parents,and fame tempers.   But the
 vigour or difability  of perfons in the act of copulation: many
 times caufes it to be otherwife :  For  children got through
 the heat and ftrength of defire,  muft  needs partake more of
 the nature and inclination of their parents, than  thofe 'hat
 are begotten with  defires  more weak: And  therefore the
 children  begotten by .men in their old age,  are generally
 weaker than thofe begotten by th^m-in their youth.
 .  As to the fhare which  each oi the parents has  in beget-
' ting'the child, we will give the opinion of tlie ancients about

   Though it is apparent  (fay  they) that the man's feed is
 the chief efficient beginning of action,  motion and gencrati- 
Completed.
'7
 an ; yet that the woman affords feed,  and effcftually con-
 tributes in that  point to  the  procreation of  the  child, is
 evinced by ftrong reafqns.  In the firft place, ferninary vef-
 fels had been given  her in vain, and  genital' Tefticles  in-
 verted, if the woman wanted feminal  exoefcence; for na-
 turedoth nothing in vain; therefore  we mult grant  they
 were made for the ufe of feed and procreation, and fixed in
 their proper place, both the Tefticles and receptacles of feed
 whofe nature is  to operate and afford virtue tt> the feed".  And
 to prove this, there needs  noftronger  argument (fay they)
 than, that if a woman do not ufe copulation to  eject her feed
 fhe  often falls into  ftrange difeafes,  as appears by  young
 women and virgins:  A fecond reafon  they urge is, that al-
 though the fociety of a lawful bed confift  not altogether in
 thefe things, yet it is apparent, the female fex are never
 better* pleafed,  nor  appear more blyth  and jocund  than
 when they are fatisfied this way, which  is an  inducement
 to believe, they  have more pleafure and  titulation therein
 than men.   For, fince nature caufes much  delight to  ac-
 company ejeftion, by the breaking forth of the fwelling fpi- .
 rits, and the iWiftnefs of  the nerves;  in which cafe,  the
 operation on the woman's partis double, fhe having an en-
 joyment both  by ejeftion  and reception,  by which  fhe is
 more delighted in the aft.
   Hence it is (fay they) tha: the child  more frequently re-
 fembles the mother than the father, be caufe the mother con-
 tributes molt towards it.   And they think it  may be  fur-
 ther inftanced, from  the endeared affeftion they bear them;
 for,  that befides their further inftanced, fror.-  the endeared
 affeftion contributing feminal matter,  they feed, and nou-
 rifh the child  with the puretl fountain of blood until its
birth.   Which opinion, Galen affirms, by allowing child-
 ren to participate molt of the mother, and afcribes  the dif-
ference of fex  to the operation of the menftrual blood ;  but
the reafon of the likenefs he refers to the power of the feed ;
for, as plants receive  more nourifhment from fruitful ground
than from the induflry of the hufbandman; fo the infant re-
ceives in more abundance  from the mother than the father.
For firft, The feed of both is cherifhed in  the  womb,  and
there grows  to perfection,  being nourished with blood.:—
And for this reafon, it is  (fay thev)  that  children  for  the
                          Hi' 
 r8               Arif otie's Mafer piece"  ^

 moft part love their mother belt, becaufe they receive moll
 of their  fubftance from their  mother:  For about  nine
 months fhe nourifhes her child in the womb, with her pureft
 blood, then her love towards it newly born,  and  its  1 ilc«r-
 nefs do clearly fhew, that the  woman  afF.jrdeth  feed, and
 contributes more towards making the child than the man.
   But in  all this the antients are  very erroneous,  for the
 Teftic'ss (fo called in women) afford not any  feed  but are
 two eggs, like thofe of fowls and  other creatures; neither
 have they any office as thofe of men, but are indeed Ovaria,
 wherein the eggs are nourifhed by the fanguinary veiTebr dif-
 perfcd through them, and from thence one or  more (as they
 are fcecundated by the man's feed) is feparated and convey-
 ed into the womb, by the ovedufts.   The fruth of this is
 plain, for if you boil them, their liquor  will  be  the  fame
 colour, tafte and confiltency, with the tafte to birds eggs;
 if any objeft they have no fhells, that fignifies  nothing ; for
 the eggs of fowl?, while  they  are in  the ovary; nay after
 they are faftened to the uterus, have no fhell ; And though
 when they are faid they have one, yet that is  no more  than
 a defence  which nature has provided  them  againft  any out-
 ward injury,  while they are hatched without the body ;
 whereas thofe of the woman  being  hatched within the bo-
 dy,  need no other fence  than  the womb,  by  which  they
 are fufficiently fecured.
   And this is enough, I hope, for the clearing of this point.
 As to the third thing propofed, as whence grows the kind,
 and whether the man or woman is the caufe of the  male or
 female infant.
   The primary caufe we muft  afcribe to God, as  is  moft
 juftly his due, who is the ruler and  difpofer of all  things,
 yethefuffers many th'ngs to proceed according to the rules
 of nature, which proceed by their inbred motion, according
 to ufual and natural courfes, without  variation.  Though
 indeed by favour from on high, Sarah conceived Ifaac, Han-
 nah, Samuel, and Elizabeth, John  the Baptift;  but  thefe
 are all very extraordinary things brought to pafs by a Divine
 Power, above the courfe of nature ;  nor have  fuch inftances
.been wanting in latter days ; therefore I fhall  wave them,
 and proceed to fpeak of  things natural,  The antient phy-
 ficians and philofophers fay, That fince there  are two prin-
 ciples out of which the body of man  is made, and which 
           ^^^      Completed.                      ig

render the child like the parents,  and by one or the  other
fex, viz.  Seed common to both fexe:.,  and menftrual blood
proper to th; woman only,, the fimilitude (fay they) muft
needs confit in the force or virtue of the  male or female ;
fo that it proves like the one or the other,  according to the
plenty afforded by either; but that the difference of the fex
is not referred to the feed, but to the menftrual blood which
is proper to the  woman, is apparent.   For were that force
altogether retained in the feed, the  male feed being of the
hotteft quality, male children would abound, and few of the
female be propagated : Wherefore the fex is attributed to
the temperament of the aftive qualities,  which confift in
the heat and cold, and the nature  of the matter under them,
that is, the flowing  of the menflruous  blood ;  but  now the
feed (fay they) affords both force  to procreate and form the
child,  and nutter for its generation ;  and in the menflruous
blood there is  both matter and force ; for  as the feed moft
helps  the  material  principle,  fo alfo  does  the menftrual
blood the potential feed ; which is (fays Galen) blood well
concocted by the veffels that  contain  it.  So  that blood is
not only the matter of generating the  child, but alfo feed
in poffibility that menftrual blood hath both principles.
   The ancients further fay, That the feed  is  the ltronger
efficient : The matter of it  being very little in quantity, but
the potential quality of it is very ftrong ; wherefore if thefe
principles of generation, according to which the fex if made,
were only (fay they) in the  menflruai blood, then would
the children be  all moftly females; as, were  the .efficient
force in the feed,  they would be all males; but fince both
have operation in  menftrual blood,  matter predominates in
quantity,  and  in the feed force and virtue.  And therefore
Galen  thinks the child receives its fex rather from the mo-
ther than from the father ;  for though his  feed contribute a
rittl.' to the material principle, yet it is more weekly.   But
for likelinefs it is referred  rather  to the father than  to  the
mother.   Yet the woman's feed receiving  ftrength from  the
menftrual blood, for the fpace of nine  months, overpowers
the man's as to  that particular;  for  the  menftrual  blotfd
flowing in  the  velTels, rather chertflies  the one than  the
other ; from which it is plain, the woman affords both mat-
ter ta make, and force and virtue to perfeft the concception ;
thsugh the femi'e's feed be fit nutriment  for the male's, by 
  20                ArifotUs Va/Jer pied '■' !*'

  reafon of the tYnnefs ffit,  btingimre adapted to rmke up
  conception thereby.  For as of foft w •  x and moiftclay, the
  artificer can frame what he intends, (o fay they, th:. nvn's
  feed mixing with the woman's, and alfo with the menftrual
  blood, helps to make the form and perfeft part of man.
    But with all imaginable deference to the wifdom of our
  fathers,  give me leave to fay, that  their  ignorance in the
  anatomy of man's body has led them into the paths of error,
'  and run them into great miflakes, for their hypothefis of the
  formation of the embryo from thecoftmixture of feed, and
  the nourifhmentof it too  in the  menftruous blood, being
  wholly falfe, their opinion in this cafe muft  of neceffity be
  fo alfo.
     I fhall therefore conclude this chapter,  and only fay, that
  although a ftrong imagination of the  mother may often de-
  termine the fex, yet  the main agent in this cafe is the plaf-
  tick and formative principle, which is  the efficient in giving
  form  to the child, which gives it this  or that fex, according
  to th">fe laws and rules given to  us by  the wife Creator of
  all things, v. ho both makes and fafhions it, and therein de-
  term nes them  according to the Council of his own wilt.

                   CHAP.     IV.
  J di/'csur/e of Mans foul, that it is not propagated by the pa
     rents, but is  infujed by its Creator, and can neither die nor
     corrupt.  At what time it is infufed, of its immortality, and
     certainty of the refurreclion
         MAN's foul is of fo divine  a nature and excellency,
          that Map himfelf cannot  in any wife comprehend ir,
   it being the infufed  b;eath of the Almighty, of an immortal
   nature, and not to be comprehended but by him  that gave
   it.  For  Mofes, by holy infpiration, relating the original
   of Man,'tells us, "  That God breathed into his ncftrils the
   " breuh of life, and he became a living foul."  Now a,  for
   all other creatures,  rft  his word  they were  made and had
   life; but the creature God  had  appointed  to fct over his
   works, was the peculiar  workmanfhip  of the  Almighty,
   forming him out of the duft of the earth, and cond.efcendir.g
   to breathe into his noftrils the breathe of life, v. hich feerm
   to denote moie care, and  (if we may  (o term it) labour ufei
   about M*n, than about all other creatures, he only partalr-
   ^g and participating  of the blcffci divine  nature,  beating 
                     Completed.                      21

God's imige in innocence and purity ; whilft he flood fi-m,
and when by his fall that lively image was defaceJ, yet fuch
was the love of his Creator towards him, that  he found out
a way to reftore him ;  the  only begotten Son of the eternal
Father, coming into the world to deftroy the works of the
Devil, and to raife man from the low condition, to which
his fin and fall had reduced him, to a ftate  above that  of
angels.
   If therefore man would  underftand the excellency of his
foul,  let him turn  his  eyes inwaidly, and look into himfelf,
and fearch diligently hi? own  mind ; and there  he fhall  fee
many  admirable gifts and excellent ornaments, that  muft
needs poflefs  him with wonder and  amazement, as Reafon,
Underftanding,  Freedom of Will,  Memory, &c. tint/plain-
ly fhew  the foul to be defcended from a heavenly original,
and that therefore it is of infinite duration, and not fubjeft
 to annihilation.  Yet foi its many offices  and operations whilft
in the  body, it   goes  under  feveral denominations:—
For  when  it enlivens the  body, it  is called the  foul;
 when it gives  knowledge, the judgment or  mind:  and
 when  it  recals  things paft,  the  memory ;  whilit  it dif-
 courfes  and   difcerns, reafon;  whilft  it contemplates,  the
 fpirit; whilft it is the  fenfitive  parts,  the  fenfes.  And
 thefe are the principal offices, whereby the foul declares its
 power,  and performs  it,aftion, for being feated  in the high-
 eft parts of the  body, it diffufeth its force into every mem-
 ber;  not propagated  from the parents, nor mixt with grcis
 matter ; but the  infufed  breath of God immediately pro-
 ceeding from him; not paffing from one to another, as was
 the opinion  of Pythagoras who held a  tranfmigration of ;: e
 loul, but that the foul is given to every infant by infufion, is
 the molt leceived and orthodox opinion ; and the learned do
 likc.vile agree, that this is done when  the infant is perfefted
 in the womb, which  happens about the twenty fourth  day
 after conception,  efpecially for males, who are generally born
 at the end of nine months; but in females,  who are not fo
 foon formed and perfefted,  through deteft of heat, not till
  the fiftieth day.   And though tnis day cannot be  truly let
 down, yet Hypocrates has given his opinion,  when the child
  has its prefent form, when it begins to move, and when born,
  if in  due feafon : In  his book <>f the  nature  of  Infants, he
  fays, It it be a  male, and he be perfeft on the thirtieth day, 
 *.%              Arijl. tie's Majier-piece

 and  move  on the ninetieth  day,  he will  be born  at  the
 feventh month;  but if he be perfectly firmed  on the thirty-
 fifth day, he will move in the feveitich, and be  born on
 the eighth  month.   Again, if he be  perfectly formed on
 the fifty-fif K day, he will  move on  the ninetieth,  ar.d be
 born in ihe ninth month.   Now from  th fe paffing of clays
 and mun;lv,  it plainly appears, th ■ the day of forming'be.
 ir.g doubled,  makes up the  day of m wine, and  thit day
 three t :r.es reckoned,  m ikes up the day of birth.
   As thu-,  when thirty five pefefts the form, if you double
 it, makes feventy, \he day  of  motion,  and three timed f:-
 venty, amount to two hundred and ten days,  which allow-
 ing thirty days to a month,  makers feen months, and fo you
 muft cpnfider the reft.  But as to a  fern ile, the cafe is differ-
 ent, for it is lender perfecting in the womb,  the mother ever
 going longer ivi:h a boy thin a girl, which  makes the  ac-
 count differ;  for a female fotmed in thirty days, m we? not
 till the feventieih day, and is bom  in the eighth month ;
 when fhe is foimed on the fortieth, fhe  m ves not  till  the
eighiie h, and is  born in the eight month; but if fhe be per-
feft'y formed on.the fifty fith day,  fhe  moves on the nine-
 tietr, and is  bo-n in the ninth month ; but  if fhe  that  is
formed on  the fixtieih  day, moves the  hundred and tenth,
and will be born the tenth mmth.  I treat thi m >re large-
ly he ejf, t, at the .Reader may know,  the reafonable foul
is not propagated by the parents, but is infufed by the Al-
mighty, when the child  hath its perfect foim, and  is ex-
 aftly diftinguifhed in its lineaments.
   Now as  the life of every other creature, as  Mi fes fiiews,
 \' in the blood,  fo the  life  of Man confifteth  in  the foul,
which although  fubjeft to pafiion,  by  reafon  of the grofc
compofures of the body, in  which it has a temporary con-
 finement;  yet it is imm ma), and cannot in  itfelf corrupt,
or fuffer change,  it being a  fpark of the Dvine Mind ; and
 that every man has a peculiar f >ul, plainly appears  by the
vaft difference between the Will, Judgment, Opinion, Mir
ners,  Affections  in Men.   And this David obferves, laving,
*'  God hath formed tht hearts and  minds  or  nil men, and
"  has given to every one his own being, and x fou]  of its
 "  own  nature,"   Hence Solomon  rejoiced, that  God hid
given him  a happy foul,  and a  body  agree  'ok-  to   it.  It
his been difputed anvorjg the learned,  in what part  of the 
             Wg^tWmpleted.                     23

body the foul refides;' a-rd fome are of opinion, its refidence
is in the middle of the heart,  and from  thence ccmmuni-
cates itfelf fo every part,  which Solomon  in the fourth of
the Proverbs,'feems to affirm,  when he fays, ^ Keep  thy
" heart with  all  diligence,  for out of  it are  the iifues of
" life."   But many curious phyficians, fearchihg the works
of nature, in man's anatomy,  do affirm, that its  chief  feat
is in the  brain, from whence  proceed the fenfes, faculties
and actions,  diffufing the  operatioH of the foul  through all
the parts of the body, whereby it  is enlivened with  heat
and force  to the heart, by the  arteries, cordites: or fleepy
arteries;  which part  upon the throat, the which  if they
happen to be broken, or cut,  they caufe  barrennefs;  and if
{topped,  an apoplexy ;. For there muft neceffarily be ways
through which  the fpirits, animal and vital, may have in-
tercourse, and  cenvey  native  hest from  the foul.*  For
though the foul has its, chief feat in oneplace,[it operates in
every part, exercifing every Member, which are the foul's
inftruments by  which fhe difcovers her  power.  But  if it
happen that any of the organical parts  are out of tune, its
whole work is confufed,  as appears  in idiots and mad-men,
though in fome of them,  the  foul,  by a  vigorous exerting
its power, recovers  its innate ftiength,  and  they  become
right after a lengdefpondency in mind; but in others  it is
not recovered again in this life.   For as a fire  under afhes,
or the fun obfcured  from our fight by thick clouds,  afford
not their full luftrej,  (6 the foul overwhelmed  in moift or
morbick matter is darkened, and reafon  thereby overcloud-
ed, and though reafon fhines  lefs in children than in fuch
as are^irrived to maturity, yet  no  man  muft imagine  that
the  foul of  an infant grows up with  the child, for then
would it again decay, but it fuits itfelf to nature's weaknefs,
and the imbecility of the  body wherein it is placed,  that it
may operate the better.   And as the body is moie and more
capable of receiving its influence, fo the foul does more and
ruore exert its faculties, having force and endowments at the
time it enters the form of a child in the wemb, for its  fub-
  mce can receive nothing lefs.   And thus much to prove
    roui  comes not from the parents, but is infufed by God,
     • next prove its  immortality,  and  fo demon/Irate the
        .•  of our refurrection.
          he foul of Man is a  Divine Ray, infufed % the 
24                Ariflotlis  MaHtr-piece   -
                                      ■*m.
Sovereign Creator, I have already proved,  and now come to
fhew that whatever  immediately proceeds  from  him  and
participates of his nature, muft be as immortal as its origin-
al ;  for though all other creature* are endowed with fife and
motion,  yet they want a reasonable foul;  and from thence
it is concluded,  that their life is in their  blood, and  that
being corruptible,  they perifh and arc no more; but Man
being endowed with a reafonable fonl,  and ftamped with
the Divine Image, is of a different  nature; and though hV
body  be corruptible, yet his foul being  of an immortal na-
ture cannot perifh ; but muft  at the  diflblution of his body
return to God who gave it, either to receive reward or pu-
nifhment.   Now that the body can  fin of itfelf,  is impoffi-
ble;  becaufe  wanting the foul, which is  the  principle of
life, it cannot aft, nor proceed  to any thing  either good or
evil ;• for could it do (o, it might fin even in the grave;  but
jt'is plain that after Death there is a ceffaiion; for as Death
leaves us,  fo Judgment will find us.
   Now  Reafon  havingevidently demonftrated the foul's im-
mortality, the holy fcriptures do abundantly give teftimony
to the truth of the refurre&ion as the reader may fee by  per-
ufing the fourteenth  and ninth chapters of Job, and the  fifth
of St. John.  I fhall therefore  leave the further difcourfing
of this matter to Divines,  whofe proper province it is, and
return to treat of the works of nature.

                     CHAP.   V.  ..

 OfMonjiers and monjlrtms births, and the feveral reafons there'
   of according to the opinion of the ancient s> alfo luhetber mon-
  Jlers are endowed with reafonable fouls ; and whether devils
   can engender, is briefly here difcuffed.
     BY the ancients, monfters are afcribed  to depraved con-
      ceptions,  and are defigned to be excurfions of nature,
 which  are vicious one of thefe four ways; either in figure,
 magnitude, fituation, or number.
   In figure,  when a man bears the charafter of a  beaft, as
 did the  beaft in Saxony.
    In magnitude, when one part doth not  equalize wit'
  nother.  As when one part is too big or too little for t*
  ther parts of the body ;  and  this is fo common amotr
  need not produce a teftimony for ?t. 
\pleted.
   I proceed to the caufe of their generation, which is either
'Divine or Natural;  The Divine caufe proceeds from God's
 permiffive will, fuffering parents to bring forth abominations
 for their filthy and corrupt  affeftions,  which are let loofe
 into wickednefs like brute beaits that have no underftanding.
 Wherefore it was enafted among the ancient Romans, that
 thofe which were any ways deformed, fhould not be admir-
 ed into religious'houfes. And St. Jerome was grieved in his
 time,  to fee the deformed and  lame offered up  to God  in
 religious houfes.   And  Keckerman,  by way of  inference,
 excludeth  all that  are  ill-fhaped, from  this prefbyterian
 funftion in the Church.  And  that Which is of more force
 than all. God himfelf commanded Mofes not to receive fuch
 to offer facrifices among his people, and he renders  the rea-
 fon,  Lev. xxi. 28.  ' Left he polate  my fanftuaries.'  Be-
 caufe  the outward deformity of the body,  is often a fign of
 the pollutions of the heart, as a curfe laid upon the child for
 the parents incontinency; Yet it is  not always fo, let  us
 therefore duly examine, and fearch out the natural  caufe of
^
^i&^H&HSssssa
         fiwjjj^■wj^j5r>--w^B&3EMLfe ?Ai"^: a. ii.*-- " tirr."*'
  There was a Monfier born  at Ravenna in It.-. *;', in the
Tear  151 2, of this Kind.

their generation ;  which  (according to  *.h- .ancients,  who
have dived into the focrets of nature) is either in the.matr.ar
or in the agent, in the  feed, or in the womb.
                            C 
*6
Ariflc tie's Mafter pi
  The matter being the default two ways, by defect, or by
excefs;  by defeft, when the child hath but one arm.  By
excefs, when it hath three hands,  or two heads.
  Some monfters are begotten by  women's unnatural lying
with beafts,  as  in  the year 1630, there was a monfter be-
gotten by a woman's generating with a dog, which monfter
from its navel upwards had the perfeft rcfemblance of its
mother, but from jts navel downwards it refembled a dog,
as you may fee here.
  The agent or womb, may be in fault three ways;  Firft,
In the formative faculty which  may .be  too ftrong or too
weak  by which is procured a  depraved figure.  2dly, In
the inftrument,  or place of conception,  the evil confirmati-
on or difpofition whereof will caufe a monftrous birth. 3dly,
In the imaginative power, at the time of conception, which
is of fuch a force,  it {lamps the character of the thing ima-
gined upon the child.  So that  the children of an adultrefs
may be like  her own hufband, though begot  by another
man ; which  is caufed through the force of imagination that
the woman hath of her own hufband in the act  of coition ;
and I have heard of a woman, who, at the time  of concep-
tion, beholding the pifture of a blackamore, conceived and
brought forth  n vEthiopean.   I will not trouble you with 
Completed.
27
  Another monfter reprefsnting an hairy child.  It was all
covered with hair like  a beaft.  That which rendered it
more frightful was, that its navel was in  the  place  where
his  nofe fhould ftand, and his eyes placed where his mouth
fhould have been,  and its maulh was  in the ch'n.  It w .s
of the male kind, and was born in France in thj year 1597,
at a town called Aries in Provence, and lived  a few  dr, -,
affrighting all that beheld it.   It was looked upon as a fore-
rui.ner of thofe defolations  which  foon after  happened in
th it kingdom, where men, towards each other,  we're in.>re
like beafts than human  cre.i.ur.3.

     Where Children thus are born with hairy coats,
     Heaven's wrath unto the kingdom it denotes.
Cz 
28               Arifotie's Mafer piece
  Of this kind was the monfter born at Nazara in the year
IC30, it had four arms and four legs as you fee here.
LIKEWI  S  E,
  Infhj t'me of Henry III. there was  a  woman delivered
of a child having tvyo heads and fjur arm, anJ  the  body
was joined to the u;.c':fide ; the luads were  fo placed, they
looked contrariwifc, each lud f.w<_> dilcinft arms and hands ;
they would both lauj.h, boih fpe*k,  ;n.i buh cy, and be
hungry together, fometinvji the or.e would Ipeak,  and ti.e
other would keep  fiieocc, and  fomjeime'  both i, e ik toge-
ther.  L lived fever-l years, but one outlaid the ether time 
Completed.                       ZCj
years, carrying the dead  one  (for. there was  no part A g
them) till the other fainted with the burden,  and more v\uh
the ftink of the dead carcafe.
I' ■  ^——^———a—■■—11 nini mi m ii .
                 AND  ALSO,

  By the following Figure you may fee, that though fome
of the  Members may  be  wanting, yet  they  are  iupphed
by other Members.
C  3 
. 30              AriJfotle*s Mafer-piece
[This follows from  Page 26.]
more  human teftimonies, but conclude  with a  flrcr.per
warrant.   We  read, Gen. xxx.  31. How  Jacob h .vinfj
agreed with  Laban, to have all the fpotted fheep for keep-
ing his flock, to  augment his wages, took hazel  rods  and
peeled white ftakesin them, and laid them before the fheep
when  they  came to drink, and coupled  together  there,
whilft  they beheld the rods, conceived  and brought forth
fpotted young.
 . The imagination alfo works  on the child  after concep-
tion, for which I have a pregnant Inftance ;  a worthy gen-
tlewoman  in Suffolk, who being with  child,  and  paffing
by her butcher killing her meat, a drop of blood fprang on
her face, whereupon fhe faid her child would have a blemifh
on the face,  and at the birth  it  was found marked with a
red fpot.
  And it is certain that monftrous births often happen  by
means of undue copulation, for fome there are who having
been long  abfent from one another, and  have an eager  de-
fire of enjoyment, coniiier not as they ought  to do what
their circumltances are, and if it happen that they come to-
gether when the woman'j menfes  are flowing, will not- 
Completed.                       % \
withftanding proceed  to  the aft of copulation,  which  is
both unclean and unnatural; and the iffue of  fuch copula-
tion  does  often  prove monftrous, as  a juft punifhment of
lying together when nature forbids; and therefore  though
men fhould be ever fo eager for it, yet  women, knowing
their own  conditions, fhould  at fuch times  refufe  their
company.   And though  fuch  copulations  do not always
produce monftrous  births,  yet the- children then begotten
are generally heavy, dull and fluggifh, anddefefti/e in their
underftandings, wanting the vivacity and livelinefs which
children got in proper feafons are bleffed withall.
   It remains that I now make fome enquiry, whether thofe
that  are born monfters have reafonable  fouls, and are ca-
pable of refurreftion.   And here both divines  and phyfici-
ans are generally of opinion, that thofe  who  according  to
the order  of generation, deduced from  our  firft parents,
proceed by natural  means from either fex, though their out-
ward lhape may  be deformed and  monftrous; having not-
withftanding a reafonable foul,  and confequently  their bo-
dies  are capable of a  refurreftion, as other men's and wo-
men's are; but thofe monfters that are not begotten by men,
but are the product of woman's  unnatural lull, in copulat-
ing with other creatures; fhall perifh "as the brute beafts by
whom they were begotten,  not having a reafonable  foul,  or
any  breath of the Almighty infufed into it.
   And fuch can  never be capable  of a refurreftion. And the
fame is alfo true in imperfect and  abortive births.
   Some are of opinion, that monfters may be ingendered
by fome infernal fpirit.  Of this mind was Agidus Facius,
fpeakingof a deformed monfter born at Cracovia,  and Hi/o-
nemus Gardanus wrote of a  maid that was got with child
of a  Devil, fhe thinking it had been a fair young  man ; the
like alfo is recorded by Vicentius of the prophet Merlin,
that  he was begot by an evil fpirit.
   But what a repugnance would it be, both to religion and
nature, if  the Devils could beget men ; when we are taught
tobslieve,  that not any was ever  begotten without human
feed, except the Son of God.  The  Devil then being a fpi-
rit,  having no corporeal fubftance, has  therefore  no feed  of
generation; to 'ay-that he can   ufe the aft of generation et-
kftually, is to  sifiiin that he can  make fomething of no- 
                                "1
12                 Ariftotles Majfer--piece

thing,  and confequently to affirm the Devil to  be God,  for
creation belongs to God  only.
  Again, if the Devil could aflame  to himfclfa dead body,
and enliven the faculties of it, and make it able to generate,
as fome affirm he can, yet his body muft bear the image of
the  Devil, and it borders  upon blafphemy to think that God
fhould  fo far give leave to the Devil, as out of God'* imige
to raife his own diabolical offspring.  In  the fchool of na-
ture we are taught the contrary, viz. That like begets like ;
therefore of a Devil man  cannot be  born,  yet  it is  not de-
nied, but the Devils transforming themfelves  into  human
fhape=,  may abufe both men and women, and with wicked
people ufe carnal copulation ;  but  that any fuch  unnatural
conjunction can bring a human creature, is contrary both
to nature and religion.

                 CHAP.     VI.

A difcourfe of the happy fate of Matrimony, as it is appointed
  of God,  and the true felicity that redounds thereby  to either
  fex,  and to what end it is ordained.
   \X 7ITHOUT doubt, the uniting of hearts in  holy wed-
   'V   lock is of all conditions the happieit; for then a mm
hn.Aa fecond felf, to whom he can unravel his  thoughts, as
well as a fweet companion in his  labour ; he  has  one  in
whofe breait  as in a iafe cabinet, he mav reoofe his inmoft
fecrets, efpecially wh:re reciprocal love, and inviolate faith
is fettled ; for there no care, fear, jcalouiy, millrull, or ha-
md can ever interpofe.  For what  man ever hated  his own
 fiefh,  and truly.a wife if rightly  confiderei, as our grand-
 tither obferved,  is or ought  to be eiletnv.J  f every honeft
 man,  bone of his bone,  and  ffofh  of  his  flefh,  &c.  Nor
 was it the lesft care of the Almighty to ordain  fo  near  an
 union, and that for two caufes, the firft for increa'e of pos-
 terity,  the fecond,  to bridle  and bind  nv.n's wandering de-
 fires an i aifoftions; nay, that they  mi[/ht be  yet  happier
 when  God had joined them  together,  h- blefied th ,n,  as
 it is in the fecond of Geneiis,  '.A'lumih contemplating this
 h^ppy ftate tells  us of the CEconomy of X.nophon,  th >t the
 marriage bed is not only  the  moft pleafon'c, but  profitable
 courfeof life 11.zc may be entered on for thepreferva;ion and
 incrcife of poiU'rlu ; wiurcore fince  marriage i. the .moft 
Completed.
33
fafe, lure and delightful ftation of mankind, who is  exceed-
ing prone by the dictates of nature, to propagate his like,
he does in no way provide  amifs  for  his own tranquility,
who enters into it efpecially when he comes to maturit ofy
ye?rs,  for there are -many abufes in  marriage, contrary to
what is ordained,  which in  the  enfuing  ch.ipii.-r 1 fhuil ei-
pofe to view.
   But to proceed, feeing our blefied Saviour and  his  holy
apoftles detefted  unlawful  luft, and  pronounced thofe to
be excluded  the  kingdom  of Heaven, that pollute them-
 felves   with  adultery  and   whoring ; I  cannot  conceive
what face perfens can  have  to colour  their impieties,  who
 hating matrimony, make it their  ftudy how they may  live
licer.tioufly'j'bu: info doing,  they rather feek to themfelves
 torment, anxiety, and difquietudes, than certain  pleafure,
 befides the hazird of their immortal foul :  For certain  it is,
 mc^ren.ry love, (or as the wife man calls thrm) harlot fmiles
 cannot be t^ue and  fincere, and therefore not pleaiant, but
 rather a net laid to betray fuch a truftin them, into all mif-
 cjiief as Solomon obferves by the young man void  of under-
 fianding, who turned a fide to the harlots houfe.  Asa  bird
 to the fnare of the fowler, or an ox to the {laughter, till  the
 dart be ftruck through the liver.  Nor in this cafe can  they
 have children,  thofe endearing pledges of conjugal wffsftiori,
 or if they have, they will rather redound to their flume thm
 comfort, bearing the  odious brand of baftards : Harlots like-
 wife are likefwallows flying in the fummer feafon of.ptol.
 perity,  but the black ftormy weather  of  adveifity comirg,
 they take wings and fly into  other regions; that is,  feck
 t.iemfelves oth r lovers ; but in a virtuous chalte wife, fixing
 her entire love upon her hufband,  and fubmitting to him as
 her head and king,  by whofe directions  fhe  ought to ftcer
 in all lawful ccurfes; will, like a faithful companion, ffore
 patiently with him in all adverfities,  run  with cheerfulneis,
 through all difficulties and dangers though ever fo  hazardous
 tr- preferve or aflift  him in povefcy*  ficknefs,  or  whatever
 oilier rr.h fortunes may  befal him;  afting according  to her
 duty  in all things.   But a  proud imperious harlot will 6.0
 more than fhe lilts in the fun-fhine.of profperity : And like
 a horfe-leech,  ever craving and never fatbfiei ;  fii'l  feent •
 ing difpieafed if all her extravagant cravings be not aniw~r-
 ed ; not regarding the ruin and mifery fhe brings upon him 
31-               Ariflotlei Mailer-pitee

by thofe means,  though fhe feems to doat upon him,  ufing
to confirm her hypocrify with crocodile's tears, vows,  and
fwoonings;  when her cully is to depart awhile, or feems
but to deny  her immoderate defires; yet this lafts no longer
than fhe can gratify her appetite and prey upon his fortune.
Remarkable  is the ftory that Cornardus  Gofner teils of a
young man travelling from Athens to Thebes, who met by
the way a beautiful lady, as  to  his appearance fhe feemed
adorned with all perfections  of beauty,  glittering with  gold
and precious ftones, this foeming fair one faluted  him,  and
inviting him  to her houfe not far off", pretending to  be ex-
ceedingly enamoured with him,  and declared fhe had a  long
time waited  for an opportunity to find  him alpne, that fhe
might reveal her paffion to him.   The young fpark went
with her,  and when he came to her hmfe,  he  found  it  to
appearance  built very {lately, and very  well  furniflied :
Which fo far wrought upon his covetous inclination, that he
refolvcd to put  off his intended journey,  and yield to her
enticements; but whilft fhe was leading  him  to fee the
pleafant places adjoining to the houfe,  came by  a holy pil-
grim, who feeing in what daneer the  youth was, refolved
to let him in his right fenfef, and fh w him what  he ima-
gined real, was quite otherwife ; f> that  by  powerful prayer
the  mill was taken from before his eyes, who then  beheld
his lady ugly, deformed, and monftrous; and that whatever
had appeared glorious and beautiful, was only trafh. Then
he made her  confefs what fhe was, and  her defign upon the
young man ;  which ftie did, faying, She was  one  of the
Lamice  or fairies, and that fhe lud thus inchanted him on
purpofe to get him into her  powe , that flie  m ^hc devour
him. This paffage may be fully alluded to harlots, who draw
thofe that follow  their mifguiding  lights  into the ph.ee  of
danger  till they  have caufed them-to fhip  wreck their for-
tunes, and then  leave them toftruggle  with  the  ftorms  of
adverfity which  they have raifed.  Now,  on the contrary,
a loving, chafte, and  even-tempered wife,  feeks  what fhe
may to  prevent fuch dangers, and  in every condition does
ali to make him eafy.  And in a word,  as there is no con-
tent in  the e.nbraces of a harlot, fo there is no gieater joy
than in  the reciprocal affection and endearing embraces  of a
loving,  obedient, and chafte wife.   Nor is that  the prin-
cipal end for which matrimony was ordained, but that the 
yf^&mplcted.
35
  man might follow the law of his creation, by the increafing
  of his kind,  and replenifh  the earth,  for  this was the in-
  junction laid upon him in paradife befo/ehis fall.  To con-
  clude, a   virtuous wife is a  crown  and ornament  to her
  hufband, and her price is above rubies: But the wavs of a
  harlot are deceitful.

                CHAP.    VII.

' Of Errors in Marriage; why they are, and  the  Prejudice of
                           them.
       BY errors in Marriage, I mean the unfitnefs of the per-
        fons marrying to enter into this Hate, and that both
  with  refpeft to  age and the conftitution of their bodies;
  and therefore thofe  that defign to enter into that condition
  ought to obferve their ability, and not run themfelves up-
  on  inconveniencies; for thofe that  marry  too young, may
  be  faid to marry unfeafonably,  not confidering  their  inabi-
  lity,  nor examining the force  of nature;  for  fome  before
  they are  ripe for confummation of fo weighty a  matter, who
  either rafhly of their own  accord, or by the inftigation  of
  procurers of marriage brokers,  or  elfe  forced thereto  by
  their parents, who  covet a large dowry, take  upon  them
  this yoke to their prejudice ; by  which,  fome before the
  expiration of a year, have been fo enfeebled, that  all their
 i vital  moifture has been exhaufted ;  which  hath  not been
  reftored again without great trouble  and the ufe of  medi-
  cines.  Wherefore  my advice is, that  it is no  ways  conve-
  nient to fuffer children, or fuch  as are not of age,  to marry
  or  get children ;  but  he  that propofes  to  marry,  muft ob-
  ferve to chute a wife of an  honeft {lock,  defcended of tem-
  perate parents;  being chafte,  well-bred, of good manners,
 ! For,  if a woman have good conditions, fhe hath portion  e-
 ' nough.  That of Alemenia in Plautus, is much to the pur-
  pofe, where he brings in a young woman fpeaking.
        / take  not that to be my dowry,  which
         The vulgar fort do wealth and honour call,
        But all my wilhes terminates in this,
         T' obey my hufband and be chafte withal;
        To have God's fear and, beauty on my mind,
        To do thofe good who're virtuoufly inclin'd. 
36                 Ariftotle's Maflirpiece

And I think fhe was in the right on't; for  fuch a wife is
moie precious than  rubies.
  It is certainly the duty of parents to be  careful in bring-
ing up-their children in the ways of virtue, and to have re-
gard to their honour and reputation, and  cfpecially of vir-
gins, when grown to be  marriageable.  For as has been be-  '
fore noted, if through the much toofeverity of parents, they
may be croffed  in  their  love  many of them throw them-
felves into the unchafte  arms of the next  alluring tempter, A
that comes jn the way, being through the foftnefs and flexi-  v
bilty of their nature, and the ftrong defire they  have after
what nature ftrongly incites them to, eafily induced to  be-
lieve man's falfe vows of promifed marriage to cover  their
fhame;  and then too late their parents  repent of their {eve-
nly, which has brought an indelible ftain  upon their fami-
lies.
   Another error in  marriage is,  The inequality  of years in
the parties married  ;  fuch as for a  young man, who  to ad-
vance his fortnne marries a woman old enough to be  his
grandmother, between  whom  for  the  moft part, ftrife,
jealoufies, and difcontents, are all the bleffings which crown
the genial bed, it  being impoflible  for fuch  to  have any
children.  The like  may be  faid,  though with a little cx-
cufc, when an old  doting  fellow  marrie9 a  virgin in the  1
 prime of her youth and  vigour,  who  while he  vainly
 drives to  pleafe her, is thereby  wedded to his giavc.  For as
 in green  youth it is unfit and unfeaf lable to  think of mar-
 riage, fo to marry in old age is altogether the fame ;. for they
 that enter upon it  too foon are foon exhaufted, and  fall in-
 to confumptions and diverfe other  difeafes,  and thofe  that
 procraftinate and marry unfeemly, fall  into the like inconve-
 niencies; on the other fide,  having only  this honour,  of an
 old man  they beccme  young  cuckolds,  especially if their J
 wives have not been trained up in the paths of virtue, and f,
 lie toe much open to the importunity and temptation of lewd
 and debauched men.  And thus much for the errois of rafh,
 inconfiderate, and inconfiderable marriages.

                 CHAP.    VIII.

 The Opinion of the learned concerning Children, conceived and
    horn within fevin Months, with Arguments upen the §u;- 
Completed.
37
 jell,  to prevent Sitjpicionof Incontinency, and bitter Cent efts
  on that Account.  To which are added,  Rules to  know the
  Difofition of Mar's Body by the genital Parts.
      MANY bitter quarrels happen between men and their
       wives,  upon the man's fuppofition  that  his child
came too foon, and by  confequence that he could not be
the father; whereas it was through want of underftanding
the fecrets of nature, that brought the man into  that error:
And which had he known, might have cured him of his fuf-
picion andjealoufy ; to remove which,  1 fhalfendeavour to
prove that it is poffible,  and  has  been frequently  known
that children have been born at feven months.   The cafes
of this nature that have happened, have  made work  for the
lawyers, who have left it  to the  phyficians  to judge ;  by
viewing the child, whether  it be a child in feven,  eight, or
ten months.   Paul the Counsellor has  this paffage, in the
nineteenth book of Pleading, viz. It is now a received truth
that a perfeft child may be born in  the feventh month, by
the authority of the  learned Hypocrates, and therefore we
muft  believe  that a  child  born at  the  end of the  fe-
venth month in  lawful  matrimony, may  be lawfully  be-
gotten.  Galen is of opinion, that there is no certain time
let for 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 feventh month, a
learned author faid,  I know feveral married people in Hol-
land that had twins born in the feventh month, who lived
to old-age,  having lulfy bodies and lively minds.  Where-
fore their opinion is abfurd, who afferr, that a child at feven
 months  cannot be pet feet and long lived : And that he can-
 not in all parts be perfeft tili  the  ninth month,  thereupon
 this author'proceeds tq tell a paffage from  his own know-
 ledge, viz; Of late, (fays he)  there happened  a  great  dif-
 turbance among us,  which  ended not without  blood fhed ;
 and was occafioned by a virgin,  whofe  chaltity  had  been
 violated, defending of a noble family, ofunfpotied  fame.
 Now Several  charged  the  faft upon the judge,  who  was
 Prefident of a city in Flanders; who ftifly denied it, faying
 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 further  argued, That he ve-
                           D 
                                ■•r-o-
  38                Ar if 0 tie's Mafter piece

  rily believed that it was a child born in feven months, him-
  felf being many miles diftant from the mother of  it,  when
  it was conceived ;  whereupon the judges decreed,  that the
  child fhould be viewed by able phyficians, and experienced
  women, and that they fhould make  their report; who hav-
  ing made diligent enquiry,  all of them with one mind con-
  cluded the child  (without  refpefting who was the father)
  was born within the fpace of feven months, and that it was
  carried in the mother's womb but twenty-feven  weeks and
  odd days ;  but if fhe fhould have gone full nine months, the
• child's parts  and limbs  would have  been more  firm -and
  ftrong, and the ftrufture of the body more compaft, for the
  fkin was very loofe, and the breaft  bone that  defends the
  heart, and the griftle that lay over the ftomich. lay higher
  than naturally they fhould  be ; not plain, but crooked and
  fharp ridged,  or pointed like thofe of a young chicken,
  hatched in the  beginning  of  fpring.  And being a female
  infant, it wanted nails upon the joints of the fingers;  upon
  which, from the mafculous, or cartilaginous matter  of the
  flcin,  nails that are very fmocth to come, and  by  degrees
  harden, fhe  had inftead of nails a thin  fkin or Aim.  As
  for her toes, there was no fign of nails upon  them, wanting
  the heat which was expanded  to the fingers, from the near-
  nefs of the heart.  All this  being confidered, and above all,
  one gentlewoman of quality that afiilled, affirming that fhe
  had been the mother of nineteen children, and that  divers
  of them had  been born  and  lived at feven months  ; they
  without favour to any party,  made their  report, that the
  infanowas a  child of feven  months; though  within the
  feventh-month, for in fuch cafes,  the revolution of the moon
  ought to be  obferved,  which perfects itfelf in  four bare
  weeks, or fomewhat lefs than twenty-eight days ;  in  which
  fpace of the  revolution, the blood being agitateu by the
  force of the moon, ought the  courfes of the woman to flow
  from them, which being fpent and the matrix being cleanf-
  ed from the menftrousblood, which happens on the  fourth
  day; then if a man on the feventh day lie with his   wife,
  the copulation is moft natural, and then  is the conception
  belt; and a child thus begotten, may be born in the feventh
  month, and prove very healthful :  So that upon this report,
  the fuppofed  father was pronounced innocent, upon proo(
  that he was one hundred  miles  diftant  all that month in 
Completed.                      39
which the child was begotten; and as for  the mother,  fhe
ftrongly denied that fhe knew the father being forced in the
dark, and fo through fear and furpriic, was left in ignor-
ance.
   As for coition it ought not to be had, unlefs  the  parties
be in healrh, leaft it turn to the difadvantage of the childien
fo begotten,  creating in them through  the abundance of ill
humours, divers languishing dileafes, wherefore  health is
no way better to be difcerned  than  by the genitals of the
man.  For which reafon, mid-wives, and other fkilful wo-
men, were formerly wont to fee  the Tefticles of children,
thereby to conjecture their temperature and Hate of body ;
and  young men know  thereby the  figns  or ' fymptoms of
death ;  for if the cafes of the Tefticles  be loofe and feeble,
and  the cods fall down, it  denotes  that the vital  fpirits,
which are the props of life,  are  fallen; but  if the  kciet
parts be wrinkled and raifed  up,  it is a  fign all is well ;  but
that the event may exreily anfwer the prediction, it is  ne-
ceffary to confider what part of  the body the  difeafe  pof-
fefleth;  for if it chance to be the upper part that  is afflict -
ed,  as the head or  ltomach,  then it  will not i.o  well appear
by the members, which are  unconcerned with  fuch grieve-
ances ;  but the lower part of the body  exactly  fympathix-
ing with thern,  their livelinefs on the contrary makes it ap-
parent ;  for nature's force, and the  fpiri's  that hare their
intercourfe, firft  maoifeft themfelves  therein, which occa-
fion midwives to feel the genitals  of children, to know in
what part the grief  \i  refided,  and  whether  life or death
be portended therebv,  th-; fymptoms  being ftrongly com-
municated by the ve fit-Is,  that have  their interceurfe  with
the  principal feat of life.
                  C   HA  P.    IX.
Of the Green Sicknefs in Virgins,,  with  its ctzufes, figns,  and
   Cures;  together with the  chief  occafion  of barrennefs of
   Wornm, and the means to remove the caufe, and render them
   fruitful.
rj-AHt Green Sicknefs i:  fo common a diftemper in Vir-
   J[  gins, efpecially thofe of  a phlegmatic  complexion,
 th.t it  is eafily difcerned, {hewing  itfelf  by  difcolouring
the  face,  making it lo ok green, pale, and of a. dully col jut,
proceeding  from raw  and indigefted humours ; nor doth it
oniy appear to the eye, but fenfibly afflicts the perfon with 
40                Arif otie's Mafter piece
difficulties of breathings,  pains in the head,  palpitations of
the heart, with unufual beatings, and  fmall throbbings of
the arteries in the temples,  neck,  and back, which often
caft them into fevers,  when the humour is over  vicious,—
alfo lof.ching of meat,  and the diftention of the Hypocondi-
ean part, by rci'on of the inordinate effiuftion of the men-
flruous blood to the greater velfels ;  and  from  the abund-
ance  of  humours the whole  body is often  troubled with
fvei'ing, or at leaft the thighs, legs,  and  ancles, all above
the heels. There is alfo a great wearinefs of the  body with-
out any reafon for it.
   The Galenical phyficians affirm, that this diftemper pro-
ceeds from  the womb; occafioned by the grofs, vicious, and
rude humours arifing from feveral inward caufes  ; but there
aie alfo outward caufes, which have a fhare in the producti-
on of it; as taking cold in the feet, drinking of  water,  in-
temperance of diet, eating things contrary to nature,  viz.
Raw  or  burnt  flefh,  afhes, coals, old fhoes, chalk, wax,
nut fhells, mortar, lime, oat-meal, tobacco pipes, &c. which
occafion  both a fuppreffion of the menfes, and obltructions
through  the whole body ; therefoie the firft thing neceitary
to vindicate the cau{e is matrimonial conjunftion, and  fuch
copulation as may prove fatisfaftory to her that  is affiifted ;
for then tie menies will begin to flow, according  to  their
natural and due courfe, and  ihc  humours being difperfed,
wli  foon waft-: themfelves, and  then no more matter being
admitted to incieafe  them,  they will  vanifh,  and  a  good
temperament of body  will return ; but in cafe this belt re-
medy cannot  be had  foon enough,  then  blood her in the
ancle ; and if file be about the age of fixteen, you may like-
wife do it in the arm, but let  her blood  but fparingly, ef-
pecially if the blood be good.   If the difeafe be  of any con-
tinuance, then it is to be eradicated  by purging, prepara-
tion of the humour fi,ft confidered, which may be done by
the Virgin's d'rinking of decoft of Guiacum, with dittany of
Creetc ;  but the  bell purge in this cafe ought to be made of
aloes, agric, fenna, rhubarb; and  for  {lengthening the
bowels,  and  opening obftruftions, chalybear medicine; are
chiefly to be uf-.-d.  The  diet mull be moderate,  and fharp
things by all means avoided.   And for finding the humours
lake prepared  fteel, bezjar ftone,  the  root of  fcotzonera,
oyl of chryftal in fmall wine,  and let the diet be moderate, 
Completed.                    4'
but In no wife let vinegar be ufed therewith, nor upon any
occafion.  And in fo obferving, the humours will, be dilat-
ed and difperfed,  whereby the complexion will return, and
the body be lively and full of vigour.
   And now, fince barrennefs daily  creates difcontent, and
that difcontent breeds difference between man and wife, or
by immediate grief frequently calls the woman into one or
other diftemper, I fhall in the next place treat thereof.
                     Of Barrennefs.
   Formerly, before women came to the marriage-bed, they
were firft fearched by the midwife, and thofe only  which
fhe allowed of as fruitful, were  admitted.   I hope, there-
fore it will not be am fs to  fhew you how they may prove
themfelves,  and turn the barren ground into a fruitful foil.
Barrennefs is a deprivation of life and power, which ought
to be in feed, to procreate and  propagate.  For which end
men and women  were made.
   Caufes of banennek.   It is caufed  by overmuch cold or
heat, driving up the feed,  and corrupting it, which ex-
tinguifhes the life of the leed,  making it  wateriih and un-
fit for generation.  It may be caufed alfo by not flowing, or
over flowing of thecourfes,  by fwellings,  ulcers,  and  in-
flammations of the womb, by an excrefcence of flelh grow-
ing about the mouth  of the  matrix, by  the mouth  of  the
womb being turned to the back  or  fide,  by  the fatnefs of
the body, whereby themjuth of the  matrix is  clofed up,
being preffed with the omentum, or caul,  and the matter of
the feed is turned too fat; or if fhe be of a lean  and dry
body to the world, fhe proves barren ; becaufe though fhe
doth conceive,  yet the fruit of her body will wither before
it comes to perfeftion for want of nourifhment.  Silvius a-
feribes one caufe of barrennefs to compelled copulation ;  as
when parents force their daughters to have hufbands  con-
trary to their  liking, therein  marrying  their bodies,  not
their hearts, and where there is a  want of love, there Tor
the moft part is no conception ; as  very  often  appears in
women which are deflowered againft their  wills.   Another
main caufe of this barrennefs is attributed to want of a con-
venient moderating quality which the woman ought to have
 with the man ;  as if he be hot, fhe muft be cold ; if he be
 cry, fhe muft be moift j but if they be both dry,  or  both
                          D 3 
42               Ariftotle's Mafter-piece
moift of conftitution, they cannot propagate; and yet /imp-
ly confidered  of themfelves-, they are rot  barren ;  lor  he
and fhe who were before as  the barren fig tree, being j  i:,ed
to an apt conft tution, become as the  fruitful  vine.   And
that  a man and woman being every  way of  like conft  rati-
on cannot procreate, I will bring natuie uielffor^a teftimo-
ny,  who hath ra.dc mm of  the better constitution  tf'an
wom.n,  that the quality o.  the one may  moderate the qua-
lity of the other.
                  Signs of Barrennefs.
  If barrennefs doth  proceed from overmuch heat, fhe is ol
a dry body, fuhjeft to anger, h th black hair,  quick pulfe,
her purgations fl >w but little,  and that with  pain, fhe loves
to play in the courts  "f Venus.  But it  it  comes by cold,
then a e the  figns contrary  to  thefe  even now recited.  If
through the evil quality of the womb, make  a fuffdmigation
of red   florax, myrrh, caffia wood, nutmeg,  cinnamon ;
and let her receive the fume of it into the womb,  covering
her very clofe ; and if the odour fo  rectived,  pafleth thro'
the body up into the  mouth and  noftrfs ol  herfelf  fhe  is
fruitful.   But if fhe feels not the  fume in her mouth and
fioie, it argues barrennefs one of thefe ways, that the fpirit
of the feed is either through cold extinguifhed, or through
heat  diffipated. If any woman be fulpefted to beunfiuit-
ful,  caft natural brimftone,  fuch as  are digged out of  the
mine, into her urine; and if worms breed therein, of her-
felf,  fhe is not barren.
  Prognoftics.  Barrennefs makes women look young, be-
caufe they are free from thofe pains and forrows which other
women  are accuftomed to  bring forth withall.  Yet  they
have not the full perfection  of health which  fruitful wo-
men  do enjoy, becaufe they are not  rightly  purged of the
menflruous  blood, and fuperfluous  feed, which two, are
the principle caufe of m  ft uterine difeafes.
  Cure,  Firft the caufe muft  be  removed,  and the womb
(lengthened, and the  fpirits of the feed enlivened,
  If the womb be over hot; take lyrup  of fuccory,.with
rhubarb, fyrup of violets, endive, rofes, caffia, purloin.—-
Take of endive,  water Sillies, borage  flowers, of each a
handful; rhubarb, mirobalan,  of e.ch three drams; with
water make a decoction, and to the  (training of the fyrup,
electaary of violets,  one  ounce, f,rup of caffia, hat an 
Completed.
43
ounce ; manna three drams, ma!.e a potion ; Take of fyrup
of mugwort, one ounce, fyrup of maiden hair, two ounces ;
puly, civet,  triafmd one dram,  nuke  a julep.   Take pru,
fa ar  ck-ft.  rof. mefuae  of each three drams,  rhubarb one
fcruple and make a bolus, applyVto the reins and privities
fomentations o*the juice of letice  violets,  rofes, mallows,
vine leave*,  and night fhade ;  anoint the fecret  parts with
the cooling  unguent of G.iien.
   If the poor of the feed be extinguifhed by co'd, take eve-
ry  morning two fpoonluls of  cinnamon wrter,  with one
fcruple of  mithridate, take fyrup of calamint,  mugwort,
becony, of each, one ounce; waters of penny-royal, fever-
few, hyfop, fage, of each two ounces^  make a julep; Take
oil of mnifeeds,  two fcruples and a half; diacimini, diacli-
athi,  diam  i'ei, diagla-a;.gae, of each, one dram ; fugar,
four ounces, with water of cinnamon ;  make lozenges, take
of them a diam and a half twice a day,  two  hours  before
meals ; fatten cupping glaffes to the hips andjbelly.—Take
of ft/rax,  calamint,  one ounce; maftick, cinnamon,  nut-
meg,  dgn, aloes, f< a. kinc^ nfe,  of  each half an ounce;
mulk,  ten grains, ambergreafe, half  a fcruple,  with  rofe
water;  make a confefti'-m, divide it into four equal  parts;
of one  part make a pomum oderatum to fmel! on, if fhe be
not hyfterical.   Of the fee ;iid mike a  mrfs  of pills, and let
her take three every  night.  Of the third, make  a pefiary,
dip it in the oil of fpikenard and put it up.   Of the fourth,
make a (uffumigation lor ti.e w->mb.
  If the fai uhies of the womb  be weakened, and thelife of
the ie.-d luff seated by over much humidity flowing to thofe
p its.   Fake ot betony, marjoram, mugwort, penny royal,
bdin,  jt each  a h.ndfol ;  roots of allom,  fennel, of each
twodram  ;  annileed, cur.miri, of each  one dram; with
fugar and:  w.iter a lufficient  quantity; make a  fyrup and
tak  three our ces every morning.
  Is barrennefs proceed from drynefs,  confuming the mat-
ter of the feed ; take every day  almond  milk,  and  goats
milk extracted with  honey.  But often of the root fatyron
candied, and of  the eleftuary of diafyren.   Take  three
xvedders heads, b>il  them until  all  the flrfh come from the
bones;  then take melilot,  violets, camomi!:,  mercury, or-
ch's with  their roots, vfeaeh a handful; fennigreek, lint-
feed,  valerian roots, 'feach one  p^m.d ; let all thefe be 
44               Ariflotle's Mafler-piece
deccfted in the aforefaid broth, and let  the  woman  fit ih
the decoction up to the navel.
  It barrennefs be caufed by  any proper effort of the womb,
the cure i> fet  down  in  the  fecond  part ;  fometimes the
womb pn.-ves barren when there is no impediment on either
fie, except only in the manner of the aft ;  as when  in the
er.i  Hi  n pf the  leed  the man is quick  and the woman too
(luw, whereby  there  is not emilfi m of both  feeds at the
fame inftant as the  rules of conception require ;  before the
afts of coition foment the private parts with  the decoction
of becony, fage, hyffop, and calaminr; and  anoint  the
mouth and neck 'if the vvemb with mufk  and civet.
  The caufe of barrennefs being  removed, let  the womb
be corroborated as  follows :
  Take of bay berries, maftick nut meg, frankincenfe, nuti
laudanum, gaipanum,  of eacli  one dram ■,  ftyracis liquid
two fcruples ; cloves,   half   a  fcruple ;  ambeigreafe, two
grains'; then with oil of fpikenard make a peffary.
  The apteSl time for conception  is inftantly after the men-
fes are ceafed,  becaufe then  the womb is thirfty  and dry,
apt both to draw the feed, and return it, by roughnefs  of
the inw-.rd fupe fires   And  befides,  in lome the mouth of
the womb is turned into the  back  or file, and is not placed
right until the lalt day W  the courfes.
  Excefs in all things is to be avoided ; lay afide all paffions
of the mind; fhun ttudy and care, all things that  are ene-
mies to conception ; for if a  woman  conceives under fuch
circum(lances,how wife foever theptrents are, the children,
at the belt will be but foSifh,  becaufe the animal faculties,
of the parent, viz.   the underltanding, and  the reft  (from
whence the child deiives its  reafon)  are, as it  were, con-
fufed through the  multiplicity of cares and  cogitations;—
eAmples hereof we have in  learned  men, who alter gr.-at
ftudy and care, inftantly accompany  with their wives, of-
ten beget very  foolifh chidren. A hot and moift air is moft
convenient, as  appears by the women in Egypt, who ufual-
ly bring forth  three or four children at one time.
                  CHAP.   X.
Virginity, what it is,  in what it con fills, and how  vitiated;
  together with the opinion of the learned about the mutation of
■  the fex in the w;mb, during the operation of na fore in fram-
  ing the btdy. 
Completed.
4>
      THERE are many ignorant  people that  boaft of their
       fkill in the knowledge of virginity, and fome vir-
gins have undergone hard cenfures  through their  ignorant
determinations; and therefore I thought it highly neceflary
to clear this point, that the towering imaginations of con-
ceited ignorance1 may be  brought  down,  and  the fair fex
(whofe virtues are fo illuftrioufly  bright, that they both
excite our wonder, and  command  our  imitation)  may be
freed  from the calumnies and detractions of ignorance and
envy; and  fo their  honours may continue  unfpotted, as
they have kept their perfons uncontaminated, and free from
defilement.
   Virginity in a ftrift fenfe  does  fignify  the prime,  the
chief,  the beft of any thing ;  which makes  men fo defirous
of marrying  virgins, imagining fome fecret pleafure to be
enjoyed in their embraces, more than in thofe of widows,
or fack as before have been  lain withal; though  not  many
years  ago, a very great peifon  was  of  another mind, and
(to ufe his own expreflions) '  That the getting of  a maiden-
' head was fuch a piece of drudgery,  as  was  more  proper
* for a porter than  a Prince.'  But  this  was only  his opini-
on, for moft men lam fure have other fe-ntiments.   But to
our purpofe.
   The curious enquirers into nature's fecrets have obferved
that in young maids in the Sinu Pudoris, or  in that place
which is called the neck of the womb, is that pondou« pro-
duftion, vulgarly called the Hymen,  but more rightly  the
elauftrum virginale; and in the French '  button  de  rofe,'
or rofe bud, becaufe it refembles the bud of a  rofe expand-
ed, of a conve gilly flower.   From  hence is  derived  the
word  deflora, or deflower.  And hence taking away virgi-
nity,  is called deflowering a  virgin.  Moll being of opini-
on, that the virginity is altogether loft when this duplicati-
on is f-aftured and diflipated by violence;  and when it  is
found perfeft and entire, no penetration has  been  made;
and it is the  opinion of fome learned  phyficians  that  there
is not  either Hymen or &in expanded,  containing blood in
it, which divers think in  the firft copulation flows from the
fraftured expanfe.
  Now this  Clauftrum or Virginale, or flower, is  compofed
of four carbuncles or little buds like myrtle berries, which
in virgins are full and plump, but in  womtn flag and hang 
•46                 Ariftath's Mafter-pieci
loofe;  and thefe are placed in the four angles of the Sinus
Pudoris joined together by little mebranei and ligatures like
fibres,  each of  them fituate in the Tefticles  or  fpaces be-
tween each carbuncle, with which  in a manner they are
propovtionabiy  diftended; which membranes being once
deAccrr.ed, denote Devirgination ; and  many inquifitive,
and yet ignorant peifons, finding their wives defective here-
in the firit night of their marriage, have  thereupon fufpeft-
cd their cliauky, concluded another  had been there before
them.   Now to  undeceive fuch, I  do  affirm,  that fuch
fraftures happen di/cn accidental ways, as well  as by co-
pulation with  men,  viz.  By  violent {training, cougiiing,
ineezifi^,  (topping of urine, and violent motions of the vef-
fcls, forcibly fending down  the humour?,  which preffing
for pafiage, break the ligatures  or membrane; fo  that  the
intirenefs or fracture of that which is  commonly  taken for
their virginity or miiden-heid,  is no abfolute fign  of dif-
honeliy ; though certain it is that it is broke in copulation
than by any other  means;.
   I have heard, That at an affize held at  Rutland, a young
man was tried for a rape,  in forcing  a virgin,  when after
divers queflions afked, and the maid  Avearing positively to
the matter, naming the time, place,  and manner  of the ac-
tion ; it was  upon  mature deliberation  rAolved, that fhe
fhquld be fearched by a  fkiiful  furgeon and two  midwives,
who were to  make their report  upon their oaths; which  af-
ter due examination, they  accordingly did, affirming,  that
the  membranes were entire,  and  not  delacerated ;  and
that it  was their opinion, for that reafon, that her body had
not been penetrated.  Which fo far wrought with the jury,
that the prifoner wa« acquitted ;  and  the maid  afterwards
confeffed,  fhe fwore againft him out of revenge,  he  having
proimfed to marry her,  and afterwards  declined  it.  And
this much fhall fuffice to be fpoken concerning^virginity.
   I fhall now proceed to fomething  of  nature's operation,
in mutation of  fexes. in the womb.
   Tlis point is of much neceffity, by reafon of the different
opinion? of men relating to it;  therefore before any thing
poffitively can  be. aflerted, it will be  altogether convenient
to recite WhaE has bcencfeikered, as  well  in the negative
asaffi'mitiye.   And firft, Scvcrus Plinus who argues 1 r the
 negative* wihesthus : She genital parts of  both lexes are fo 
Completed.                    ^.y
unlike  others  in  fubftancc,  compofition, fituation, figure,
action, and ufe, that nothing is more unlike;  and by how
much more all parts of the body (the brealls excepted which
in women fwell more,  becaufe nature ordained them  for
fuckling  the infant,) have exaft refemblance ; fo much more
do the genital parts of the one  fex compared with the  other
differ; and •}  their  figuie be thus different, much  more in
their ufe. The venenal appetite alfo proceeds from differ-
ent caufes: For in man it proceeds from a defire of emiffion,
and in woman from a defire  of reception, in  women alfo,
the chief of thofe  parts are concave, and apt to receive, but
in men they are more porous.
   Thefe things confidered, I cannot but w  nder (added he)
how any one can imagine, that the genital  members of the
female births fhould  be changed  unto thofe  that belong to
males, fince  by thofe~parts only the d ft'rftion  of fexes is
made, nor can I  well" impute the reafon of this vulgar error
to any thing,  but the miitake of unexpert  midwives, who
have been deceived  by  the evil conformation of  the  parts,
which in fome male births may have happened to hive fome
fmall protrufions,  not to have been difcerned ;  as appears by
 the example of a child chrifttned  at Paiis  by the name of
 Joan as a girl, which afterwards proved a boy ;  and on the
contrary, the Over far extenfion of  the Clytoris  in hmale
 births may have  occafioned the  like  millakes.   Thus  far
 Pliny  proceeds in the  negative :  And yet  notwithftanding
what he rms faid, there are divers  learned  Phyficians that
 have aflerted the affirmative  of which number Galen is one.
A man,  (faith he) is different from  a  woman  in  nothing
elfe but  having h's  genital members without the body ;  but
a woman hath them within.   It  is certain, that  if nature
 having formed, fhould convert him into a woman, fhe hath
 no other tsfk to perform,  but  to  turn his genital members
 inward ; and fo turn a woman into a man by the  contrary
 operation; but this is to be underftood of the child  when
 it is in the womb, and not perfectly formed ; for divers times
 nature hath made a female,  and it hath fo remained  in the
 womb of the mother for near a month or two, and afterward
 plenty of heat increafing in  ihe genital members, they have
 iflued  forth, and  the child has  become a male,  yet retaining
 fome certain geftures unbefitting  the mafculine fex ; as fe-
 male  aftion, a ftuil voice,  and a more  effeminate temper 
48               Ariftotle's Mafierpiece
than ordinary:  contrariwife,  nature  having often  made a
male, and cold humors  flowing to it, the genitals being in-
verted, yet ftill retaining a mafculine  air both in voice and
geflures.  Now, though both  thefe opinions  are fupported
by feveral realons, yet I efteem the latter more agreeable to
truth, for there is not that vaft difference between the geni-
tals of the two fexes, as  Pliny would have us  believe there
ir, for a woman has in a manner the fame members with the
man,  though they  appear not outward, but are inverted for
the conveniency of generation :  The chief difference being
that the one is folid, and the other porous, and the principal
reafon for changing fexes is, and muft be attributed  to heat
orcold, fuddenly and flowly contracted, which operates ac •
coiding to its greater or lefler  force.
                    CHAP.  XL
Directions and Cautions for Midwives, and firft how a  Mid'
                wife ought to be qualified
A Midwife that  would acquit herlelf well  in her em-
      ployment, ought by no means to enter upon it rafhly
or unadvisedly, but with great caution, confidering that fhe
is accountable  for  all the  mifchief that befals through  her
wilful ignorance or  negleft:  therefore let none take upen
them the office barely upon pretence of maturity ofyears and
child bearing,  for in fuch for  the moft part there are divers
things wanting that ought to be obferved; which is the oc-
cafion fo many  women and children are loft.   Now, for  a
midwife in relation to her perfon,  thefe things ought to be
obferved ; viz.   She muft neither be too young nor  too old,
neither extraordinary fat, nor weakned by  leannefs, but in
a good habit of body;  nor fubjeft  to difeales,  fears, nor
fudden frights;  her  body  well lhaped, and neat in  her at-
tire:  her hands fmooth and fmall,  her nails  ever paired
fhort, not fuftering any rings to be upon her finger during
the time fhe is doing her office,  nor any  thing upon her
wrifts that may obfhuft.   And to thefe ought to be added
aftivity, and a  convenient ftrength, with much cautioufncfs
and diligence,  not fubjeft to droufinefs,  not apt to be im-
patient.
   As for her manners, fhe ought to  be courteous,  affable,
fober, chafte, and not fubjeft to paflion, bountiful and com-
panionate to the poor, and not covetous when fhe  attends
upon the rich. 
Completed.                     49
  Her temper chearful and pleafant, that fhe may the bet-
ter comfort her patient in the dolorous labours : nor muft
fhe  at any  time make too much halte,  tho' her bufinefs
fhould require  her in another cafe, left fhe thereby endan-
ger  the mother of the child.
  Of fpirit, fhe ought to be wary, prudent  and cunning :
but above all,  the fear of God ought to have the afcendant
in her foul, which will give her both knowledge and difcre-
tion, as the wife man tells us.
                    CHAP.   XII.
Further Direclions for Midwives,  teaching them what they
              ought to do, and what to avoid.
    SINCE the office of a  Midwife has fo great an influence
    on the well dr ill-doing of women and children, in the
firft place let  her be advantageous  to  her practice, never
thinking  herfelf fo perfeft,  but  that  fhe may  add to her
knowledge by ftudy and experience; yet never let her make*"
any experiment at her patient's cod, nor apply  any experi-
ment in that cafe, unlefs fhe has tryed them, or knows they
will do no harm ; praftifing neither  upon  poor nor rich,
but fpeaking freely what fhe knows;  and by  no  means pre-
ferring fuch medicines as will caufe abortion, tho' defired;*
which is a high degree of wickednefs, and may be termed
murder.   If ihe be fent  for to them  {he knows  not, let her
be  very cautious ere  ftie goes, left by  laying an infectious
woman {he endanger the fpoiling  of others, as fometimes it
happens: Neither muft  fhe make her houfe a receptacle for
great belly'd women to difcharge their burdens in ;  left her
houfe get an ill name, and fhe thereby lofe her praftice.
  In laying of women, if the birth happen to be large  and
d^icult,  fhe muft not feem to be concerned,  but muft chear
up  the woman,  and do  what fhe can to  make  her labour
eafy.   For which,  (lie may find   directions  in  the fecond
part of this book.
  She muft never think of any thing but doing well, cauf-
ing all things to be in readinefs that are'proper1'fo'r the work,
and the  ftrengthening  of the .women,  and receiving  the
child ; and above all, let her take care to keep  the' Woman
from -being unruly when her throvvs aie comiug upon  her,
left fhe thereby endanger her own life'and the child's.
 'She muft alfo take care fhe be riot hafty in her bufinef:,
                           E     *:    ■■■'"'   -'-.'- 
50               AriJIotle's Mafter piece
but wait God's leifure for  the birth ; and fey no means let
her fuffer herfelf to bedifordered by fear, tho' things fhould
not go well, left it fhould make her  incapable of giving that
afiiftance which the labouring woman Hands  in need of; for
when we are moft at a lofs, then there is moft need of pru-
dence to fet things right.
  And now, becaufe fhe can never be a  fkilful midwife,
that knows nothing but what is to  be  feen  outwardly >  I
fhall not think it amifs, but on the contrary highly  necefla-
ry with  modefty to defcribe the generative parts of women,
as they have been anatomized by the learned, and (hew the
ufe of fuch veflels as contribute to generation.
                  CHAP.   XIII.
Of the genitals of Women,  external and internal to the  vejftlt
                     of the womb
  IF it were not for public  benefit,  elpecially of the practi-
    tioners  and profeflbrs of the art  of,midwifery ;  I would
forbear to treat of the fecrets of nature, becaufe they may be
turned by fome laciv'tous and lewd perfons into ridicule :
but they being absolutely neceflary to  be known,  in order
to public  good,  I will not omit them,  becaufe fome may
make a wrong ufe of them.  Thofe paits that  offer  them-
felves to view at the bottom of the belly,  are the Fiflura
Magna,  or  the great  chink,  with its  Labia  or   lips, the
Mons Veneris, and the hair ; thefe are called by the gene-^
ral  name pudenda, from fhame facednefs, becaufe when
they are bare,  they bring  puder or fhame upon a  woman.
The Fiflura Magna reaches from the lower  part of the Os
Pubis, to within  an inch of the anus,  but  it is lefler  and
clofer in maids than in thofe that have  born  children ;  and
has two  lips,  which towards  the  pubis grow  thicker^d
more full; and meeting upon  the  middle of the  os  pums,
makes that rifing  bill that is called Mons Veneris,  or the
hill of Venus.
  The next thing that offers, are the Nympha and Clytorii,
the former of which is of a membrany  and flamy fubftance,
fpungy,  foft,  and partly flefhy  and of a red colour,  in the
fhape of wings, two in number, though from their rife they
are placed in an acute angle,  producing there a flefhy fub-
ftance,  which clothes  the clytoris;  and fometimes they
fpread fo far, that Incifion is  required to make way for the
man's inftrument of generation. 
Completed.
5»
  The clytoris is a fubftance in the upper part ofothe divi-
sion where the two wings concur, and is the feat of veneral
pleafure, being like a yard in fituation fubftance, compofi-
tion andereftion; growing fometimes out of the  body two
inches, but that never happens unlefs through extreme luft,
or extraordinary  accidents.   This  clytoris confifts of two
fpungy and ficinny bodies, containing a diftinft original from
the os pubis, the head of it being covered with a tender {kin,
having a hole or  paflage  like the  penis  or yard of a man ;
tho' not quite through,  in which,  and the bignefs, it only
differs from it.
  The next thing are flefhy knobs,  and  the  great  neck of
the womb; and  thefe  knobs are behind the wings, being
four in number, and refemble myrtle berries, being placed
quadrangular, one againft ih? other; and in this place in-
ferred to the orifice of the bladder,  which opens  itfelf into
the fifures, to evacuate the urine ; for feeuring of which from
the cold, or the like inconveniency, one of thefe knobs is
placed before it,"and fhuts up the paflage.
  The lips of the womb  that next appear, being  feperated,
difclofe the neck thereof,  and in the  two things are to be ob-
ferved, which  is the neck itfelf, and the hymen,   but  more
properly the clauftrum virginale, of which before I have
difcourfed.  By  the neck of  the womb is to be underftood
the channel  that is between the aforefaid knobs and the  in-
ner bone of the  womb, which receives  the penis like a
fheath ; and that it may  the better be dilated for the  plea-
fure of procreation, the fubftance of it is finewy, and a little
fpungy ;  and in this concavity are divers folds, or orbicular
plaits made up in tunicles, wrincled like an expanded rofe.
In vfrgins they plainly appear, but in women that have of-
ten ufed copulation they are  exringaifhed  ; fo that the inner
fide womb's neck appears fmooth, and in old women it  ap-
pears mere hard and  grilled. But tho' this channel be fome-
times wreathed and crooked, finking down ;  yet in the time
of copulation,  labour, or the mondily purgation, it is ereft-
edand extended, which over extenfions occafion the pains
of child-birth.
  The hymen, or clauftrum  virginale, is  that which clofes
the neck of the womb, being as 1 have forecited in the chap-
ter relating to virginity broken in firft copulation,  its ufe he-
                         E z 
52              Ariftotle's Mafier-piece
ing to ftay the  untimely courfes  in  virgins, than to. any
other end ; and commonly when broken in  copulation, -or
by any other accident, a fmall quantity of blood flows  from
it, attended with fome little pain, From whence fome ob-
ferve.that between the duplicity of the two tunicles, which
conftitute the neck of the womb ,  there are many veins Jmd
arteries running along and arifing from  the veffels  on  both
fides of the thigh, and  fo pafling into the neck of the womb
being very large; and  the reafon  thereof  is, for that the
neck of the bladder requires to be filled with abundance of
fpirit?,  thereby to be dilated for its  better  taking  hold of
the penis, there being great heat required in fuch motions,
which become more intent  by the  aft of frication,  and
confumes a confiderable quantity of moifture, in the fupply
©f which large veffels are altogether neceflary.
  Another caufe of thelongnefs of thefe veffels is, by rea-
fon the menfes make their way through them, which often
occafions women with child to  continue  their  purgation ;
for tho' the womb be fhut up, yet  the paffage in the neck of
the womb through which the veffels pafs is open ; in this cafe
there is further to be obferved, thac as  foon  as  you pene-
trate the pudendum,  there appear two  little pits or holes,
wherein is contained an humour, which being expnnged in
time of copulation, greatly delights the woman.
                  C  H -A  P.   XIV.
A defer!pticn of 'he womb's filrick, the preparing veffels, and
  Tefticles in women ; as alfo of the difference and  eJAculatory
  veffels.
   IN  the lower part  of the hypogsftrium, wheie the  lids
   are wideft and broadelt, they  being  greater and broad-
er thereabout  than  thofe of men,  for which reafon tfiey
have likewife broader  buttocks than  men ; the   womb is
joined to its neck, and  is placed between the bladder  and
ltrait gut, which  keeps it from  fwaying  or rowling, yet
gives it liberty to ftretch  and dilate itfelf again to contraft,
nature in that cafe difpofing it.   Its figure is in  a manner
round,  and not unlike  a gourd, leflcning a little and grow-
ing more acute towards one end, being knit  together by its
proper ligaments; its neck likewife is joined  6y its  own
Jubilance,  and  certain  membranes that faflen to the os fa-
crum, and the  fhare-bone.   As to the largenefs,  that much
differs in women, especially  the difference is great between 
Completed.
53
fuch as have born children, and thofe that have born none ;
in fubftance it is fo thick that it exceeds a thimble breadth,
which after  copulation  is fo far from  decreafing,  that it
augments to a greater proportion, and the more to ftrength-
en it, it  is interwoven  with fibres overthawrt, which are
both {trait and  winding;  and its  proper veffels are veins,
arteries and nerves;  and among  thefe ther*- are two little
veins which  pafs from the fpermatick veffels to the bottom
of the womb, and two larger from the hypoftratick,  whic
touch both the bottom of the  neck, the mouth of thefe vein
piercing  as far as the inward concavity.
   The womb hath two arteries on both fides the fpermatick
vefle's and the hypoftratick,  which  will  accompany the
veins; and befides there are  divers little nerves,  that are
knit and twined in the form of a net, which are alfo extend-
ed throughout, even from the  bottom of the pudenda them-
felves being placed chiefly  for fenfe and pleafure,  moving
in fympathy  between the head and the womb.
   Now it is to be further noted,  that by reafon of the two
ligaments that hang on cither fide the womb, from the ftiare-
bone, piercing through  the peritoneum, and joined to the
bone itfeif; the womb is moveable upon fundry occafions,
often falling low or  rifing high.  As  for the  neck of the
womb, it is of an exquifite feeling,  fo that  if it be at any
timeout of order, being troubled at any  time with a fchir-
rofity,  over-fatnefs,  moifture, or  relaxation, the womb is
fubjefted thereby  to barrennefs; in thofe  that are with
child, there frequently ltays a glutinous  matter in  the en-
trance to facilitate the  birth ; for at the time  of delivery,
the mouth of the womb is opened to fuch a wdenefs as is
conformable to-the bignefs of the child,  luffering an equal ^
dilation from the bottom to the top.
   As for the  preparatory or fpermatic veffels  in  women,
they confift  of two veins and two artenet,  not differing
from thofe of men, but only  of their largencfs and manner
of infertion ; for the number of veins  and  arteries is the fame
as in men, the right vein ifluiBg from :he  trunk of the hal-
low vein  defcending; and on the fide of them are two ar-
teries, which grow from theadrta.
   As to the length and breadth of thefe veffels they are nar-
rower and fliorter in women than in men ; only obferve they
                         E  S 
5|              Ariftotlcs Mafter-piece
are more wreathed and comforted than in men, as fhtinking
together  by leafon of their fhortnefs, that they may by their
loofenef, be better ftretched out when occafion requires it;
and thofe vcficls  in women are carried  with  an  indirect
courfe through the lefler guts, the Tefticles, but are in mid-
way  divided into two branches, the greater goes to the
ftoncs, conftituting a  v.iriousor winding body, and wonder-
fully inofculatirg ; the lefler  branch  ending in the womb,
in the infide of  which it dilperfeih itfelf, and efpccially at
the higher part of the  bottom of the womb for itsv nounfh-
raenO and that  part  of the courf s may  purge through the
veffels;   and feeing the Tefticles ofo women are Icattv near
the womb, for that caufe thefe  veffete fall not from the pe-
ritoneum, neither  make they much paffage as in men, nor
extending themfelves  in the lhare bone.
   The itones in women commonly called Tefticles, perform
not the  fame action  as in men,  they  are alfo different  in
their  location, bignefs,  temperature, fubftance, Joim, and
covering.  As for the place of their feat, it is in the hollow-
nefs of the abdomen;  neither are they pendulous but ieft
upon the mufcles of the loi'n=, f> that they may by  contract-
ing the greater heat be  mote fruitful, their office being to
contain the ova, or eggs,  one o: which  being impregnated
by the man's iced engenders man, yet they differ tr-m  thole
of men  in figu e, by reafon  of their leffnefs or  flntnefs at
each end, not being fo round or oval.  The external fuper-
ficies being  likewife ,more unequal, appearing like the  com-
pofition  of a  great many knobs and kernels  mixt together.
There is a difference  alfo in  their  fubftance, they being
much more foft and pliable, loofe and not fo well compafted.
   Their bignefs and te iptrament being likewife different,
for they  are much colder and ,effer than thole in  men. As
 for their covering or  inclofure, it differ*  extremely ;  for as
 men's are  wrapped  in divers  tunicles,  by reafon they are
 extremely pendulous, and  fubjeft to divers ii juries,  unlefs
 fo fenced by nature; fo women's Itones being internal, j,nd
 lefs fubjeft   to cafuality, are covered with one  tunicle or
 membrane, which though  it clofely cleave to them, yet ihey
 are likewife half covered with the peritoneum.
   The  ejaculatory veffels are too obfeure  pnffages, one on
 each fide, nothing differing fioni the/permatic veins in lub-
 ftence:  thev do rife on one  part  from  the bottom  of the 
Completed.
55
Womb,  not reaching from the other extremity, either to the
ftones,  or to any other part,  but lhut up and. unpafi'able;
adhering to the womb,  as the colon does to the blind gut,
and winding half way about; though the tefticles are remote
to them, and touch them not,  yet they  are tied to them by
certain  membranes, refembling the wing of a hat, through
which certain veins and arteries pafhng through the end of
the Tefticles, may be  turned  here to  have their pafiA.ges
proceeding from the corner ol the womb to the tefticles, and
are accounted  pioper  ligaments, by which the tefticles and
womb are united, and ftrongly  knit together :  and thefe li-
gaments in women are the  cremafters in men :  Of which  I
fhall fpeak more largely, when I come to defcribe the maf-
culine parts conducing to generation.
                   CHAP. XV.
A Defcription of the Ufe and Ailion offeveral Parts in Women
                   appointed in Generation.
    I^HE externals, commonly called the pudenda, are de-
       figned to cover the great orifice, and that are to re-
ceive the penis or yird, in th  aft'of coition, and give paf-
fage to the  birth and'urine.  The ufe of the  wings and
knobs like mvrtle berries,  are for the fecurity of the internal
parts, {hutting the orifice and  neck"of the bladder,  and by
their (welling up, caufe titulation and delight in thofe parts,
and alfo to obltruft the involuntary paffage of the urine.
   The  action of the clytoris in women is like  thar of a pe-
nis in man, viz. the erection  ;  2nd its outer end is like the
glans of the penis, and has  the fame name. And as the glans
ot man  is the feat of the greatell pleafure in conception,  fo
is this in women.
   The  aftion and  ufeof%the  neck of the womb is  equal
with that of the penis, viz. ereftion,  occafioned  divers
ways ;  firit in copulation, it is erefted and made ftiait for the
paitige  of the penis in the  womb : fecondly, whilft the paf-
fage is  repleted wnh fpirit  and vital blood, it becomes more
{trait for embracing the penis ; and as for  the conveniency
of ereftion,  it is two fold, fiitt, becaufe if the neck of the
womb  was not erefted, the yard could  have no convenient
paffage to the womb;  fecondly, it hinders any hurt or da-
mage that might enfue through the violent concuflion  of the
yard, during the time of copulation.
   A* for the veins tlut pafs through the neck of the womb, 
56
Ariftotle't  MajJer-piece
their voice is to replenifh it with blood and fpirit,  that dill
as the  moifture confumes by the heat contracted  in copula-
tion, it may  by thefe velTete  be renewed ; but  their chief
bufinefs is to convey nutriment to the womb,
   The womb as many properties attributed to it.   As firft,
retenticvi of thefcecundatcd egg, and this is properly called
conception, fecondly, to cherifh  and nourifh  it till nature
has framed the child, and brought it toperfefti n, and then
it ftrongly opeiatts in fending forth the birth, when the time
of its remaining there is expired, dilating itfelf in  a wonder-
ful manner, and fo aptly removed from the fenfes,  that  no-
thing of injury  can proceed from .hence;  retaining itfelf a
power  and ftrength to operate and call forth  the  birth,  un-
lefs  by accident  it be  rendered deficient ;  and  then to
ftrengthen and enable it, remedies mnft be applied by  fltilful
hands, directions for applying of which fhall be given in the
fecond part.            *
   The ufe of the preparing veflel is this, the arteries con-
vey  the blood of the  tefticles; part whereof is put  in the
nourifhment  of  them,  and the produftion of thofe little
bladders (in all things refembling eggs)  through  which the
vafa preparentia  run, and are obliterated  in th<:m ;  and as
for the ve ns,  rheir ofiice  is to bring back what blood re-
mains from the ufe aforefaid,
   The veffels of this kind ate  much  fhorter in women than
in men, by reafon of their neamefs  to the ftones, which de-
fefts is yet made good by the many  intricate  windings to
which  thofe veffels are fubjeft  ;  for in  the middle way they
divide  themfelves  into two branches, though different in
magnitude, for one being greater than the other pafl'es to
the ftones
  TS  (fones in women  are very ufeful, for where they arc
defeftive,  generation work is at an end;  for altho' thefe
bladders which are on their outward  fuperfices contain  no-
thing of feed, as the followeis  of Galen and Hypocrates did
erroneoufly imagine, yet they contain feveral eggs, general.
ly twenty (in each tefticle) one of which being impregnated
by the  fpiritous part of the  man's feed in the aft  of coition,
decends through the ovidufts in the  womb, and from  heuce
in procefs of time becomes a living child.
                   CHAP.  XVI.
           Of the Organs of generation of Mam. 
Completed.
57
      HAving given you a dtfcriptior. of the organs of gene-
        ration in wtmen, with the anatomy of the fabric or
 the womb; I fhall  now (to crmplete the firft part  of this
 treatife) defcribe the organs of generation in man,  and hew
 they are fitted  to the ufe for which nature defigned  them.
   The inftrument of generation  in  man  (commonly called
 the yard ;  and in Latin, penis a pudendo  becaufe  it  hangs
 without the belly) is  an organical part,  which  tonfifts of
 fkin, tendous,  veins,  arteries, finews  and great ligaments;
 and is long and round, and on the upper fide flattifli, feated
 under the offa pubis, and ordained by nature, partly by eva-
 cuation of urine, and partly for conveying the feed into the
 matrix; for which end it is full qf fmall pores,  thro' vfchich
 the feed pafies into it,  through the veficula feminalis,  aud
 alfo the neck of the veficula  urin^is,  which pours  out the
 urine when  they make water; befides the common parts,
 viz. The two nervous bodies, the feptum the ureihera, the
 glans, fourmufcles, and the veffels. The nervous bodies  (fo
 called)  are  furrounded  with  a thick white previous mem-
 brane,  but  their  inmoft  fubftance  is fpungy ;  confifting
 chiefly  of veins, arteries, and  nervons  fibres interwoven  to-
 gether like a net; and  when  the nerves are filled with ani-
 mal fpirits, and the  arteries  with hot  and fpir-itous blood,
 then the penis  is diftended and becomes ereft : but when
 the influx of dead fpirit ceafes, then the blood and remain-
 ing fpirits  are abforbed by the veins  and fo the penis fpirits
 limber and grow flaggy ;  below thefe nervous bodies is the
 uthera,  and whenever the  nervous  bodies fwell,  it fwelte al-
 fo. The mufcles of the  penis  ;:re four, two fhorter ari-fing
 from the coxendix, and ferving its ereftion, and  for tha_t_rea--
 fon are  called  ereftoYes;  two larger proceeding  from the
 fpinfter of the anus,  and ferve to dilate the uretra ejaculati-
 on of feed ; and are  called  dilantes, or winding.  At the
 end of the penis is the  glans covered  with  a very thin mem-
 brane;  by means of which and its nervous fubftance, it be-
 comes molt exquifitely fenfible, and is the principal feat of
 pleafure in copulation.  The  outmoft covering of the  glans
is  called prceputium a perputando from being cut off, it be-
ing that which the Jews cut off in  circumcifion,  and k.is ti-
ed by the lower parts of it to the  glans of the foetus.  The
penis is  alfo flocked with veins, arteries and nerves.
   The tefticuli, or ftones (fo called) becaufe testifying* one 
 5 8                Ar.'folk's  Mafter piece

 to be a man ;  elaborate  'he blood brought to  them by the
 fpermatick arteries fnto feed. They have coats of two forts,
 proper and common ,  the common are two, and  invert both
 the teftesr  The outermoft of the c mmon coats confiils of
 the caticula, or  true fkin ;  and is c. lied the fcortum, hang-
 ing out nf the rbdemen  lik. a pu-fe,  the innerm.'lt  is the
. membrana carnofa ;  the proper coau are alfo tw >, the outer
 called eliotrodes or v'ng nales ; tie inner albugidia, into the   *
 outer is inftried the crcmader :  the upper part of ilie- telle*
 is fix- ' ;  epidimydes, or peftata, from whrnce arife thevaf-
 fadiifrentia  or ejaculatoria which when  Aey- come  near
 the neck of the  bladder, depofitc the  fr-d  into the vificule
 feminiides thife vificule feminiales  are two,  each  like*
 bunch of grapes, and emit  the feed into the urethera, in the
 ■ft of copulation.
   Near  them are the poftratae, about the b'fjnefs of a wal-
 nut, and join to the  neck of the bladder.   Authors ennot
 sgree about the ufe of them ;  but moft are of opinion, that
 they afford  an oily,  floppy, and fat humour to befmear the
 urethera, whereby to  defend the fame fr..m  the acrimony
 of the feed  and urine.  But the veffels which  con>ev the
 blood to the teltes )  out of which the feed is made, arartriac
 fpennaticae,  and a e alfo two.  The  veins which carry out
 of the remaining blood are two, and have the  name of venae
 /permaticai.          CHAP.  XVII.
 A Word of Advice to both  Sexes: Being feveral DirecHor.t
               refpeBing the mil of Copulation.
    Since nature  has  implanted  in every creature a mutual
     defire of copulation,  for the encreafe and propagation
 sf its kind ; and more efpecially in  man, the  lord of ihe
 creation, and mafter piece of nature ; thr.t fo noble a piece
 of divine workmanfltip might not perifh, fomcthing ought to
 be faid concerning that, it being the  foundation  of all that
 we have  hitherto been  treating of; fince without copulati-
 on there can be no generation.   Seeing therefore it depends
 fo much  upon it, I thought it neceflary (before I conclude
 the firft part) to give fuch direct, ons  to both fexes, for the
 pcrforming*of that aft, as may appear efficacious to the end
 for .which nature defigned it.  But it will  be done with that
 caution,  as not to offend the  chaftcft  car, nor  put the fair
 fex to the trouble of a  biufh in readiiag it.   Fin', Therefore
 when a married couple,  from a defire of  having  children, 
Completed.
59
are about to make ufe of thofe means that nature ordained to
that purpofe,  it would be very proper to cherifh the body
with generous reltoratives that fo it may be briflc and vigo.
rous : and  if their imaginations were charmed with fweet
and  melodious airs, and cares,  and thoughts of bufinefs
drowned in a glais of racy wine, that their fpirits  may be
raifed to the  higheit pitch of ardor and joy, it would not be
amifs'.   For any  thing of fadnefs,  trouble and forrow, are
enemies to delights of Venus:  AndSf at fuch times of coiti-
tion, there  fhould be conception, it would have a malevolent
effect upon children. But though generous reftoratives may
be uied for invogorating  nature, yet all excefs is carefully
avoided, for  it will allay the brilknefs  of the fpirits,  and
render them dull and languid, and alfo hinders digeftion and
fo muft needs bean enemy to copulation.  For if food mo-
derately taken that is well digefled, creates good fpirits, and
enables a man with vigour and aftivity  to perform the dic-
tates of nature. It is alfo highly neceflary, that in their na-
tural embraces, they meet each other with an  equal ardour.
For if the fpirits flag on either part, they will fall fhort of
what na.ure requires;  and the woman  either  mifs of con-
ception, orelle the  children  prove weak in their bodies, or
defeftive in their underltanding; and therefore I do advife
them, before they begin their conjugal embraces, to invigo-
rate  their mutual defires, and make their flan es burn with
• fierce ardour, by thofe endearing ways, that love can bet-
ter teach, than I can write.
   When they have done what  nature requires, a man  muft
have a care he does not part too foon from the embraces of
his wife, left fome  fudden interpofingcold fhould flrike in-
to the womb, and occafion a mifcarriage, and thereby de-
prive them of the fru't of their labour.
   And when after fome fmall convenient time the man hath
withdrawn himfelf, let the woman gently betake herfeif to
reft with all imaginable  fecurity and compofure of  mind,
from all anxious and difturbing thoughts, or any other kind
of perturbation ;  And let  her  as much  as fhe can,  forbear
turning herfeif fiora that fide on which fhe firft repofed ; and
by all means let her avo'd coughing or fneezing, which by
its violent  concuflion of the  body, is a great enemy to con-
ception, if it happen foon after the aft of coition.
                The End of the Firft Part. 
6©                Arif otie's Mafter piece

   A   Private   LOOKING   GLASS
                   F  0 R   T H  R
           FEMALE   SEX.

         PART   the   SECOND.
Treating  of feveral  Maladies incident  to  the  Wsmb, vuith
          proper Remedies for the Cure of eat b.              *
                  CHAP.    I.
                Of the Womb in General.
     ALthough in the Firft part I have  fpoken  fomething of
      the fabric of the womb,  yet being  in the fecond part
to treat more particularly thereof, and of the various diftcm-
pers and  maladies it is fubjeft to;  I fhall not  think it  tau-
tology, to give you by way of inftruftion,  a general defcrip-
tion both of its fituation a*.d parts,  but rather  think this fe-
cond part would be  imperfect without it,  for  that it can by
no means be omitted, cfpecially fince in it I am to fpeakof
ihemenftrous  blood.
  Firft, Touching the Womb : Of the Grecians it is called
Metra, the mother; Adelphos.  faith Prifcian, becaufe it
makes us all brothers.
  It is placed in hypogaftrium, or lower part of the body,
i>o the cavity called pelvis, having the ftrait gut on one fide,
to keep it from the other fide of the back bone, and the blad-
der on the other fide to defend it from blows. The form or
figure of it is like a virile member,  only thus excepted ; the
manhood is outward,and womanhood within.
  It is divided into the neck and the body : The neck con-
fifts of a hard  flefhy  fubftance, much  like  a  cartilage, at the
end thereof there is  a membrane traverfly  placed, called hy-
men or engion, near unto the neck there is a prominant pin
nacle, which  is called of Montanus, the door  of the womb,
becaufe it preferveth the matrix from  cold and dull. Of the
Grecians it is called clytoris, of the Latins  preputium mu-
liebre, becaufe the  Jewifli women did abufe  thole parts to
their own mutual lulls as St. Paul fpeaks,  Rom. i. 26.
  The body  of the womb is that wherein the child is con-
ceived. And this is not altogether round, but dilates itlelf in-
to two ang'es, the outward  part of is nervous  and full of fi-
news,  which are the caufe of its  motion,  but  inwardly it is 
Completed.
61
   flefhy.   It is fabuloufly reported,  that in th* cavity of the
   womb there are feven divided  cells,  or receptacles for hui
   man feed.  But  thofe  that have feen anatomies, do know
   there are but two ; and likewife, that thefe  two are not di-
   vided by a partition, but only  by a line, or future running
   thro' the midlt of it.  In the right fide of the cavity, by rea-
   fon of the left fide by the coldnefs of the fpleen, females are
   begotten.
     And this do moft of oar  moderns  hold for an infallible
   truth, yet Hypocrates holds it but  in the general :  For in'
   whom {faith he) the fpermatic veffete on the  right fide come
   from the reins, and the fpermatic veffels on the left fide from
   the hallow vein, in them  males are  conceived in the left
   fide, and females in the right.   Well  therefore may I con-
   clude with  the faying of Empidoc'es, fuch fometimes is the
   power of the feed, that a male may  be conceived in the  left
   fide as well as in the right. In the bottom of the cavity their
   are little holes called the cotilendons, which are the end of
   certain veins  and arteries,' ferving  in breeding women to
,  convey fubftance to the child, which  is received by the um-
   bilical veins; and others to carry the cources  into the matrix.
     Now  touching the menftrual?, they are  defined to be-a
   monthly flux of excrementitious and unprofitable blood.
     In which we are to note, that the matter  flowing forth is
   excrementitous; which is to be undei flood of the furplus or
   redundance of it; for it is an excrement in quality, its quan-
   tity being pure and incorrupt,  like unto the blood in the
   veins-
     And that the menftruotls blood is pure and fubtile of itfelf,
   all in one quality with that  in the  veins,  is proved  two
   ways, firft,  from the final  caufe of the blood, which is the
   propagation and  confervation of mankind ;  that man might
   be conceived, and being begotten,  he might be comforted
   and preferved both in the womb and out of the womb.  And
   all will  grant  it for a truth, that a child while it is in the
   matrix,  is nourifhed with the blood :  and «~is rrue, that be-
   ing out  of the womb it is. ftill nourifhed with the fame, fir
   the milk is nothing but the'menflrous blood  made white in
   the breaft, and I am  fure women's milk is not thought to be
   venomous, but of a puritive quality, anfwerable to the  ten-
   der nature of the infant. Secondly,  Ft is proved to be true 
dz               Ariftotle's Mafter piece
from the generation of it, it .being..the fuperfluity of the laft
aliment of the flefhly parts.   ,f-
   It may be*objefted, If the  body be not of a hurtful qua-
lity, how can it caufe fuch venomous effects ?  As it the fame
fall upon trees and herbs, it maketh the one barren and mor-
tifieth the other.  Averves  writes :  That if a man accompa-
ny with any menftruous woman, if {he conceive,  fhe fhall
bring forth a leper.  I a'nfwer, This malignity is contrafted
in the womb ; for that wanting native heat to digeft this
fuperfluity, fends it to the  matrix;  where feating itfelf un-
til the mouth of  the womb be dilated,  it becomes  corrupt
and venomous, which may  ea$ly-be, cpnfide-ving  the heat
and moifture  of  the place. This blood  therefore being out
of its veffels, it offends in quality.  In this fenfe let us un-
derftand Pliny, Cornelius Florus,  and  the reft of  that tor-
rent. But if frigidity be the  caufe why woman cannot di-
geft all  their laft nourifhments, and confequently  that they
have thefe purgations, it remains to give a reafon why they
are of fo cold a constitution more.than a roan, which is this.
   The natural end-of man and  woman's being is to propa-
gate: and this injunction was impofed upon  them by God
at their firft creation,  and again, after the deluge.  Now in the
aft of corceptionthere muft  be an agent and patient, for if
they be both every way of one conftitution, they cannot pro-
pagate ; man therefore is hot anddry, woma.n cold and moift^
he is the agent fhe the patient, or weaker^ veflel,   that fhe
fhould  be  fubjeft to the office of the man.  It is neceflary
the woman fhould be of a could  conftitution, becaufe in her
is required a redundancy of nature for the infant depending
on her; for otherwife, if there were not a fuperplus of nou-
rifhment for the  child, more  than is convenient for the mo-
ther, then would the infant detract and weaken the princi-
pal parts of the mother, and  like unto the viper, the genera-
tion of the infant would be the deftruftion of the parent-
   The monthly purgations continue from the fifteenth year
to the forty fixth  or fifty.  Yet often there happens a fup-
preffion, which is either natural or morbifical, they are na-
turally fuppreft in breeding woman, and fuch a* fuck. The
morbifical fuppreffion falls now  into our method to be fpo-
ken of.
                    CHAP.  II.
              Of the Retention of the Courfes 
Completed.                      63
      THE fuppreffionof the terms is an interception of that
       cuftomary evacuation of blood,  which e,verv month
fhould come from the"?hauix, proceed from the inftrument
or matter vitiated,  thepart affefted  is the womb,  and that
of itfelf or by confenr-. ■•■■>
  Caufe] The caufe of this fuppreffion  is  either external or
internal. The external caufe may  be heat or drynefs ot the
air, immoderate watching, great labour,  vehement motion,
Sec.  whereby the matter ii fo confufed and the body fo ex-
haufted,  that theie is not a fuperplus  remaining  to be ex-
pelled,  as is recorded--of the Amazones who being active,
and always in motion, had  their fluxations veiy little -,r not
at all.  Or it may be caufed by cold which is moft  frequent,
making the blood vicious and grofs, condenfing and binding
up the ptflages that it cannot flow forth.
  The internal  caufe  is either inftrumental  or materia], in
the  womb or in  the  blood.
  In the womb it may  be divers ways ;  by  apofthumou--,
humours, ulcers, by  the narrownefs of the veins and pafl'ages,
or by the omentum or kell in fat  bodies,  preffing the  neck
of the matrix ; but then they muft have hernia zirthilis, for
in mankind the kell  reacheth not fo low. By over much cold
or heat, the one vitiating the aftion, and the other confum-
ing  the matter by an evil compofition of the  uterin  parts, by
the  neck of the w-jmb being turned afide  ;  and fometimes,
tho'  rarely by a  membrane  or excrefcence of the flefh grow-
ing  about the neck of the womb. The blood  may be in  fault
two ways, in quantity or quality.  In  quantity when it  is fo
confumed, that  their is not a foperplus left,  as in virgoes, or
virile women ;  who, tho' their heit and ftrength of nature,
digeft and confume all in  their laft norifliment.
  Signs.] Signs  manifefting the  dileafe,  are pains  in the
head, neck, back, and loins; wearinefs of the whole body,
but efpecially of the hips and legs, by reafon of a  confinity
which the macrix hath with thefe parts,  trembling of  the
heart; particular figns are thefe, if the  fuppreffion proceed
from cold, fhe is heavy, fluggifh, of a  pale'colour, and has a
flow pulfe ;  Venus combats are neglected, the urine crudle,
waterifh, and much in quantity,  the execrements of the guts
ufually are  retained.  If of heat,  the  figns  are contrary  to
thofe now recited.  If the retention be natural, and come of
                          F 2 
 ^4              Arifiotles Mafter-piece

 conception,  this may be known by drinking of hydromel,
 that is water and honey, after fupper going to bed, and by
 the effeft which it worketh ; for after,taking it, fhe feels a
 beating pain upon the navel, and lower-part of the belly, it
 js a fign fhe hath conceived,  and thatjthe fuppreffion is na-
 tural ; if not, then it is vicious,  and ought medicinally to
 be taken away.
   P'rognoftics.] With  the evil  quality  of the womb the
 whole body Hands charged, but efpecially the heart, the li-
 ver and  the  brain, and betwixt the womb and thefe  three
 principal parts, there is  a fingular concert. Firft, The womb
 communicates to the heart, by the mediation of thofe arte-
 ries which come from the aorta. Hence the terms being fup-
 picft, will enfue faintings,  fwoonings, inteimiffion of pulfe,
 cefi.a;;moi bre«;h.  Secondly, It communicates to the liver,
 by the veins  derived from the hollow vein.  Then will fol-
 low obitruftions, cahexies,  jaundice,  drupfies, hardnefs of
 fplecn.   Thirdly, It  communicates to the  brain, by the
 nerves and membrane of the back, hence Will arife cpilepfis,
 frenzies, melancholy, paffion, pain  in  tie after parts of the
head, feariuinefs, inability of fpeaking.  Well  therefore may
I conclude,  with Hypocrates, If the  months be fu'ppreft,
many dangerous difeafes will follow.
   Cure.] In the cure of this, and of all other following ef-
 fects, 1 ■-. i.il .jbferve this order. The cure fhall he taken hum
chiruryic^j, pharuo<icutica], and diuretical  means.'This  fup-
 picfh-jii is a piile'.horic effeft, and muft be  taken awav  by e-
 vacuation.  And therefore we will firft begin  with phleboto-
my.  In the  mid ft of-the  menftrual period,  open  the liver
 vein ;  and for the reverfion of the humour, two days before
 the win ted evacuation,  open the faphena on both feet;  if
 the repletion be not great, apply cupping  glaffes to the legs
 and thighs, althongh there be no hope to remove the fup-
 preffion.
   After  the humour hath  been  purged,  proceed  to  make
 proper and forcible remedies.  Make of trochifk of myrrh,
one dram and  a half; parfley feed, caltor rhinds, or caflia, of
each one fcruple; and of the  extract of mugwort, one fcra-
pje and a half; mufic ten grains with the juice of fmallage ;
make twelve  pills, take fix every morning, or after fupper
 g  ing to  bed.
   Ii the letention comes from repletion or fulnefs, let the 
Completed.
65
airbe hot and dry, ufe moderate exercife before meals, and
your meat and drink attenuating; feethe with your meat,
garden  favory,  thvme,  origane, and cyche  peafon: if of
emptinefs, or defeft  of matte;, let the air be moift and mo-
derate hot; fhun exeicife, and watchings, let your meat be
nourifhing,  and of a  light  digeftion, as rare eggs,  lamb,
chickens, almonds, milk and the  like.
                    CHAP.  III.
            Of the Overflowing of the  Courfes.
      THE learned  fay, by  comparing of contraries truth is
       made manifeit. Having therefore fpoken of the fup-
preffion of terms :  order  requires now  that I fhould infill
on the overflowing of them, an effeft no lefs dangerous than
the former, and this immoderate  flux of the month is defined
to be a fanguinous excrement proceeding from the  womb,
exceeding  in both quantity  and  time; Firft, it is faid to be
fanguinous, the matter of the flux being only blood,  where-
in it differs from that which is commonly  called the falfe
courfes or whites; of which I fhall fpeak hereafter. Second-
ly, It is faid to proceed from the womb,  for  there are two
ways by which the blood flows forth, the one  way is by the
internal veins in the body of the  womb, and this is prqper-
ly called the^monthly flux.  The other  is by thofe veins
which are  terminated  in the neck of the matrix; and this
is called of Etius, the hemorhoids of the womb.  Laftly, it
is {aid to exceed both in quantity  and  time. In  quantity faith
Hypocrates, when they flow about eighteen ounces; in time
when they flow above three days ; but we  take  this for a
certain character of their inordinate flowing,  when  the fa-
culties of the body  thereby are weakened :  in bodies a-
bounding with grofs  humours, this immoderate flux  fome-
times unburthens nature  of her  load, and ought not  to  be
ftaid without the council of a phyfician.
  Cure.] The caufe  of this affair is internal or external;
the internal caufe is threefold,  in the matter, inftrument, on
faculty :  The matter which is in  the blood, may be vicious
two ways.  Firft, By the heat of conftitution, climate,  or fea-
fon heating the blood, whereby the paffages aredilated, and
the faculty weakened, that it cannot retain the blood.  Se-
condly, By falls, blows, violent motion, breaking of the veins.
  The external caufe  may be calidity of the air,  lifting,
                          ^3 
65              Arifiotle's Mafter-piece
carrying ol heavy burdens, unnatural child-birth.
  Signs.]  In this inordinate flux the appetite is  decayed,
the conception deprived, and all the actions weakned ; the
 feet are fweilcd, the colour of the face is  changed,  and a
general  feeblenefs poffeffeth the  whole  body : if the flux
comes by the breaking of a vein, the body is fometimes cold,
the blood  flows forth  on heaps  and that  fuddenly,  with
great pains. If it comes through heat, the orifice of the vein
being dilated, then is there little or no  pain; yet the blood
flows fafter than it doth  in  an erofion  and  not fo faft as it
doth in a  ruptute, If by erofion or fharpnefs of blood, ftie
fee's a  great heat fcalding  the paffage, it differs from  the o-
ther two, in that it flows not fo faddenly, nor fo copioufly
as they do : If by  weaknefsof the womb, fhe abhorreth the
ufe of Venus. Laftly,  If it proceed from an evil quality of
the blood, drop fome of it on a cloth,  and when it is dry,
you may judge of the quality by the colour.  If it be  chole-
ric, it will be yellow ;  if melancholy,  black;  ifphlegma-
tio> waterifh and whitifh.
  Prognoftic] If with  the flux be joined a convulfion,  it is
dangerous becaufe it intimates the more nobler parts are vi-
tiated ;  and a  convulfion caufed by emptinefs is deadly :  If
it continues long,  it  will be cured with great difficulty, for
it was one of  the miracles that our Saviour Chrift wrought
to  cure this difeafe, when it had continued twelve  years.
To conclude, If the  flux be inordinate, many difeafes  will
enfue,  and  without  remedy, the  blood  together with the
native heat, being confumed, either cacheftical/hydropical,
or pareletical difeafes will follow.
   Cure.]  The cure confifteth in three particulars, Firft, In
repelling and carrying away  the blood,  Secondly, In corcft-
ing and taking away the fluxability of the matter. Thirdly,
In  corroberating the veins and faculties:  For the firft,  to
caufe a  regreffion of  the blood, open a vein  in the arm, and
draw out  fo much blood, as  the ftrength  of the patient will
permit; and that  not  together,  but at  feveral  times, for
thereby the fpirits are  lefs weakened, and the lefraftion  fo
much the greater.
   Apply cupping glaffes to  the breafts,  and alfo the liver,
that the reverfion may be in  the fountain.
   To correft the ffoxabiliiy of the mater, cathartical means,
moderated with the  afinctoiiei rcay be ukd. 
Completed.
67
   If it be caufed by erofion, or fharpnefs of blood, confider
whether rh; erofion be by fait phlegm,  or aduft choler; if
by fait phlegm, prepare with fyrup of violets,  wormwood,
rofes, citron peel, fuccore, Then take this purgation follow-
ing:  Mirobulana, ehebol,  half an  ounce; trochifks  ofa-
garick,  one dram, with plaintain-water, make a decoction,
add thereunto fir, rofat, lax, thiee ounces, and make a potion.
   If by aduft choler,  prepare the body with fyrrup of rofes,
myitles, forrel, puifL.n, mix with water of plaintain, knot-
grafs, <'nd endive.  Then purge with this potion :  takerhind
of mirobulana, rhubarb of each one dram; cinnamon,  fif-
teen grains; infufe them one ni^ht  in endive water;  add
to the {training pulp of tamerine, caffia, of each half an ounce,
fyrup  of rofes, an ounce;  make a potion : If  the blood be
waterifh or unconcoft, as it is in the hydropical bodies, and
flow forth  by reafon of the tenuity  or thinnefs to draw of
the water, it will be profitable to purge  with agaric elateri-
um, coloquintida ; Sweating is proper in this cafe for there-
by the matter offending is taken away,  and the  motion of
the blood carried to the  outward parts.   To procure fweat
ufe carduus water, with mithridate,  or the decoftion  and
farfaparilla. The  gum of guaiacum  alfo,  greatly provoke
fweat, pills of farfaparilla trken every night  going to bed,
are worthily commended. If the blood flows  forth through
the breaking  of a vein,  without  any evil quality of itfelf,
then ought only corroboratives to be  applied,  which is the
laft thing to be done in this  inordinate flux.
  The air muft be cold and dry ; All motion  of the body is
forbidden,  let her meat be  pheafant, patridge,  mountain
birds, coneys, calves feet, &c. And let her beer bemixt with
the juice of pomegranates and quinces.
                   CHAP.  IV.
              Of tie vjeejfng of the Womb.
     THE weeping of the womb is a flux of blood, :•  natu-
      ral,  corning from thence in  drops,  after the'm inner
of tears, caufing violent pains in the fame, keeping neith.r
period nor  time.  By  fome it is  refer;ed unt >  the immode-
rate evacuation of the courfe, yet  they  are d'jftinsuifhed in
the quantity  and  manner ofove flawing,  in that the,,  fl w
copioufly and free; In  this contAu-'A,  (hou' by little and
little, and that with great pain .,ud diifieulty ;  wheisfore it
is likened unto the ftianguaty. 
68               Ariftotle's Mafter piece

  The caufe is in the faculty, inftrtiment, or matter. In the
faculty by being enfeebled, that k cannot expel the blood ;
and  the  blood relting there,  makes the part of'he  womb
grow hard,xand ftrctcheth the veflll; from whence proceed-
ed the pain of the womb; In the  inllrument  by the  nar-
rownefs of the paffages.  Li ly, It may  be the matter of the
blood, which may offend in too great a quantity, or in an  e-
vil qualify. It  being grofs and  thick, th it it cannot flow forth
as it ought to  do, but by drops The figns will  belt appear
by the relation of the patient; Hereupon will iffue pains in
the head, ftomach, and back ;  with inflamation, fuffocations,
and excoriations of the matrix ; If the ftrength of the pati-
ent will permit, firit open  a vein in the arm, rub the upper
parts,  and  let  her arms  be  corded, that the force of the
blood ;  may be carried backward :  Then apply fuch things
as may laxate and molify the  ftrengthening the womb, and
aifuage the fharpneis  of the  blood ;  as cataplafms made of
brand, lintfeed, fenugreek,  meliot, mallows, meicury, and
artiplex : if the blood  be vicious and grofs add thereto mug-
wort, calamint,  diftam, and  bctony ;  and let her  take of
Venice treacle, the quantity of a nutmeg, the fyi up of mug-
wort every morning,  make injrftions of the  decuftions of
mallows, mercury, lintfeed, grounfel, mugwort, fenugreek,
with oil of fweet almonds.
   Sometimes  it is caufed by wind, and  then  phlebotomy is
to be omitted, and in  the flead thereof, take fyrup of fever-
few an ounce; honey, rofes, fyrup of rofes, fyrup of flsechus,
of each hall an ounce. Water  of calamint, mugwort, betony,
hyflbp, of each one ounce ; m ike a julep,  if the pain con-
tinues, take this purgation.. Take fpechierae, one dram :  di-
acathoiicon half an  ounce;  fyrup  ol  rofes,  laxative one
ounce, with the decoction  of  mugwort, and the four cordial
ff wers make  a potion.  If it comes tiirough the weaknefs of
the  faculty,  let lhat be corroborated  If thro' the groffnefs
of the blood,  iet the quality of it be altered, as I have fhewn
in the foreg )ing chapter.  Laftly,  if  the excrements of  the
guts be retained, prov ke  the.n by glyfter of  the decoctions
cf camoiidle,  bttony,  fev ei few,  mallows,  lintfeed.  juniper
 berries, common feed, annilecd, melAre, adding thereto  di-
 acatholicon,   half an  ounce, fait- nitre, a dram and a half.
 The patient  muit  abtUin from  fait,   fharp, and  windy
 meat. 
Completed.    ,                  6>j
                   CHAP.  V.
              The falfe  Coutfes, or Whites.
    FROM the womb  proceeds  not only menflruous bloodj
     but accidentally  many other excrements, which by »he
ancients are comprehended under the title of robus guna-
kios;  which is a diftillation of a variety of corrupt humoors
through the womb, flowing from the whole body, or part
of the fame, keeping neither coHrfe nor colour,  but  vary-
ing in both.
  Courfe.] The caufe is either promifcuoufly in the whole
body, by  a cacochymia, or weaknefs of the fame, or  ia
fome of the parts;  as  in the liver, which by the  inability
of the fanguifacative faculty, caufeth a  generation  of  cor-
rupt blood ; and the matter is  reddifh, fometimes  the gall
being fluggifh in its office, not  drawing  away thofe chole-
rick fuperfluiiies ingendered  in the liver;  and  the  matter
is yellowifh fometimes in the fpleen,  not defcending and
cleanfing  the blood  of the  dregs  of  excrementious parts.
And then the matter flowing forth, is blackifh; it may alfo
comefiom the cattrahs in the head, or  from any other pu-
trified or corrvpted member; but  if the matter of the flux
be whie, the caufe is either in the ftomach or  reins.   In
the ftom»ch by a phlegmatical and  crude matter there  con-
tracted and variated, through grief, melancholy, and other
diftempers; for otherwife,  if the matter  were only  petni-
cal, crude, flegme,  and no  ways corrupt, being taken hro
the liver,  it might be converted inro blood ; for the flegme
in the ventricle  is  called nourifhments  half digeficd ;  but
being corrupt, though fent into the liver,  yet it cannot be
turned into nutriment; for  the fecond decoftion cannot cor.
reft that which the fiSl hath corrupted ;  and therefore the
liver fends it to the womb,  which  can neithc*   digeft  nor
repel  it, and fo it is voided  out with the lame colour it had
in the ventricle.  The caufe alfo may be in the reins, be-
ing overheard ; whereby the fpermatical  matter, by reafcn
of its thinnefs flows forth.   The  exurnal  caufes  may  be
moiftnefr. of the  air,  eating of corrupt meats, anger, grief,
flothfulnefs, immoderate fleeping,  coftii'enefs in the body.
   The  figns are of the body, fhortnefs  and  {linking of the
breath,  loathing of mear,>pain in the head, fwelling in the
eyes and feet, melancholy ; humidity flows from the womb
©f divers colours, as red,  black, green, yellow, and white. 
;o
Ariftotie's Mafter-piece
It differs .from the flowing and overflowing of the courfes,
in that it keeps no certain period, and  is of many colours,
all which do generate from blood.  -
  Prognoftic6.J If the flux be phlegmatical,  it will  conti-
nue long, and be difficult  to cure  ; yet  if vomiting for di-
arhse happeneth, diverts the  humour,  it cures the difeafe.
If it be cholerick,  it is not fo permanent ; yet  more  peril-
ousfMor it will caufe a clifFin the ntck  of the womb, and
fometimes make an excoriation of the matrix, in melancho-
lick, it  muft  be dangerous contumacious.  Yet the flux of
the hemerhoids adminifters cure.
  If the matter flowing forth be  reiifh, open a vein  in the
arm ;  if not,  apply  ligatures  to the  arms and fhoulder  ;
Galen glories of hiTnfelf,  how he cured the wife  of Brutus
labouring of this difeafe,  by  rubbing the upper  part with
crude honey.
  If it be caufed by a diftillation from  the brain, take fy-
rup of betony, ftochas and marjoram, purge v/iih  pill coch,
fine quibus de agarico; make nafalia of the juice  of f";:e,
hyfop, betony nigella, with  one  drop of oil of elect.-dianth.
aromat. rofat.  diambrse, diomefeh,  dulcis,  of  each  c-:e
dram; nutmeg,  half a dram; with  fugar and betony wa-
ter, make lozenges, to be taken every  R*--ining and  even-
ing,   Auri Alexandrina  half a dram at nigh; going to bed.
If thefe thing- help not,  ufe the  fuffumigation and plailler,
as they are prefcribed.
  If it proceeds  from crudities  in  the ftoinach|  or  frcm  a
cold diltempered liver, take every morrig of the decoftion
of lignum fanftum ; purge with pill de agrico, de heimo-
daft, de hiera, diacolinthid, fcetid, agrigatio, take cleft, aro-
nat, rofes two drams ;  cytron  pill, dtyed,  nuinug, long
pepper, of esch one fcruple ; with  mint  water  and  make
lozengesof it.  Take of them before meah, if the  frigidity
of the liver there be joined a repletion  ,f the ft -math,purg-
ing by vomit is commendable,   For which three drams of
the electuary  diafaru.  Galen allows of diuretical means as
abfum,  ptrofolinan.
   If the matter of the flux be cholerick, prepare the humour
with fyrup of rofes, violets  end ve,  foccory :  Purge with
mirobolans,  manna, rhubarb, caffia.   Take of rhubarb two
drams; annifeed, one dram ;  cinnamon a fcruple and a half;
infufe them in fix ounces  prune both : Aid too the llrain- 
Completed.                71
ing of manna an ounce, and take  in the morning according
to ant.  Take fpicerum, diatonlanton, diacorant, prig diar-
thod, abbaris, dyacydpmcs, of each one dram ; fugar four
ounces ; with plantain water, make lozenges.  If the clyf-
ter  of the gall be fluggifh, and do not ftir up  the faculty
of the gut, give glyfters,  with the decoftion of four molify-
ing herbs, with honey of rofes and aloes,
  If the flux be melancholous, prepare with fyrup ofrnVi-
den-hair,  epithymium, polipody, borage buglos,  fumiiary,
harts-tongue, and fyrupus bifatius,  which  muft be made
without vinegar,  otherwife it will rather animate the dif-
eafe than nature;  for melancholy  by theAife  of vinegar  is
increafed, and  both by  Hypocrates, Sylvius,  and  Aven-
zoar; it is difallowed of  as an enemy ,to  the  womb, and
therefore not to be ufed inwardly  in all uterine difeafes.
  Laftly, Let the womb be cleanled from the corrupt matter
and then corroborated • For the purifying thereof make in-
jeftions of the  decoftion of betony,  fever-few, fpiknard
biftrot,  mercury,  fage; adding thereto, fugar, oil of fweet
almods, of each two ounces ; peffaries alfo may be made of
filk, cotton, modified in the juice  of the afore named herbs.
                  CHAP.   VI.
            Of the  Suffocation of the Mother.
      THIS effeft  (which if fimply confidered) is none but
       the caufe of an effeft is called in Englifh the fuffbca-
tion of the mother,  not becaufe the w»mb is ftrangled, but
for that it caufeth the womb to be choaked.   \\ is a retrac-
tion of the womb towards the  midrif  and ftomach, which
prefleth and crufheth  up the  fame, that the  inftrumental
caufe of refpiration, the midSf is fuffocated ; and  confent-
ing with the brain,  caufing the animating faculty, the effi-
cient caufe of refpiration  alfo to be intercepted, where  the
body being  refriegerated  and the  aftion depraved, fhe  falls
to the ground as one being dead,
  In  thefe hyfterical paffions  fome  continue longer, fome
fhorter; Rabbi Mofes  writes of fome who lay  in the pa-
roxyfy of the fit for two  days.  Rufus make*  mention  of
one who continued in the fame paffion three days and  three
nights; and at three days end fhe revived.  .That we  may
learn by other mens harms to beware,. 1  will  tell  you  an
example,  Paroeus writeth of  a woman  in  Spain who fud-
denly fell  i nto an uterine fufl'ocatioB, and appeared to mens 
72                Ariftotlts Mafter piece
judgment as dead ; her friends wondering at this her fudden
change, for their better fatisfaftion fent  for a  furgeon  to
have her. diffefted ; who beginning to make an encifion, the
worn .Ti b^gun to move, and  with  great clamour  returned
to herfeif again,  to the  horror and admiration  of all the
fpeftators.
   That you may diftinguifh the  living from  the  dead, the
 ancients prefcribe three experiments;  The firft is to lay a
 light feather to the mouth, and by  its motion you may judge
 whether the  patient be living or  dead.   The fecond is,  to
 place a glafs of  water on the breaft,  and if you perceive it
 to move, i: betokeneth life.  The third  is, to  hold a pure
 looking-glafs  to the mouth  and nofe ;  and if the glafs ap-
 pears thick with a little dew upon it, it betokeneth  life. And
 thefe three experiments  are good,  yet with this  caution,
 that you ought not to depend on them  too much ; for tho'
 the feather and the water do not move,  and the  glafs conti-
 nue pure and clear;  yet it ir not a neceflary confequence
 that fhe is deftitute of life : for the motion of the lungs  by
 which the refpiration is made, may be  taken away that fhe
 cannot  breathe,  yet the internal  tranfpiration  of the  heat
 may remain ; which i« not manifeft  by the motion of the
 breaft or lungs,  but lies occult in  the heart and inward ar-
 teries : Examples whereof we have in the fly and  fwallow,
 which in the cold of winter feem  dead, and breathe not at
 all.  Yet they live by  the tranfpiration  of that  heat which
 is referved in the heart and inward atteries ; therefore when
 the furomer approacheth, the internal heat being  revocated
 to the  outward parts, they  are then  again revived out of
 their fleepy extafy.
   Thofe women therefore that feem to die fuddenly, and
 upon no evident caufe,  let them  not be  committed to the
 earth unto the end of three days, left the livingbe buried for
 the dead.
   Cure ] The part effected  in the womb, of which there
 are a twofold  motion ; motion ; natural, -and fymptomati-
 cal.  The natural motion  is, when the  womb attiafteth the
 human  feed,  or excludeth  the  infant  or fecundinc.   The
 fymptomatical motion of which we are to fpeak,  is a con-
 vulfive drawing of the womb,
   Signs.] At the approaching  of the fuftocation, there is a
 palenefs of the face, weaknefs of the legs, fliortnefs of breath, 
Completed.
73
frigidity of the whole body,  with a woiking  up into the
throat,  and then fhe falls down as one void both of  fenfe
and motion ;  the mouth of the womb is clofed up, and be-
ing touched with the finger feels  hard, the paroxifm of the
fit once pall fhe openeth her  eyes and feeling  her ftomach
oppreft, fhe offers to vomit.
   Prognoftics.] If the difeafe hath its being from the cor-
ruption of the feed,  it foretels more danger,  than if it pro-
ceeded from the fuppreffion of the courfes, becaufe the feed
is concocted and of a  purer  quality  than the menflruous
blood : and the more pure being corrupted,  becomes the
more foul and filthy ;  as appears in eggs, the pureft  nou-
rifhment, which vitiated  will yield the  noifomefl favour.
If it be accompanied with a fyncope, it Ihews  nature is but
weak,  and  that  the  fpirits  are  almoft  exhaufted;  but if
freezing follows, it Ihews the heat  that was almoft extinft,
doth now begin to return,  and  that nature will fubdue the
difeafe.
   Cure.] In  the cure of this effeft,  two things muft be ob-
obferved : Firft, that during the time of  the paroxifm, na-
ture be provoked to expel thofe malignant vapours which
 bind up the fenfes, that fhe may be recalled out of the fieepy
extafy, Secondly, that in  the intermiffion of the fir, proper
 medicines be applied to take  away the caule.
   To ftir up nature, fallen cupping glafles to  the hips and
 navel, apply ligatures unto the thighs; rub the extreme
 parts  with fait, vinegar, and  muftard ; caufe loud clamours
 and thunderings in the ears.  Apply to the nofe, afiafcctida
 eaftor, and fagapaneum fleeped in vinegar, provoke  her to
 fneeze by blowing up into her noftrils the powder of eaftor,
 white pepper, peilitory of Spain, and hellebore.  Hold un-
 der her nofe partridge feathers, hair and old fhoes  burnt ;
 and all other {linking things, for evil odours are  an enemy
 to nature. Henc'ethe animal fpirits do fo conteft and ftrive
 againft them  that the natural heat is thereby reftored.  The
 brain is fo oppreft fometimes, that we are compelled to burn
 the outward  fkin of the head with  hot oil, or with a hot i-
 ron. Sharp clyfters and luppofitories are available. Take of
 fage, calamint, harehound, fever-few.  marjoram, betony,
  hyflbp, of each one handful; annifeed half  an ounce ;  co-
  loquotinda,  white hellebore, fal. gem. of each two drams;
                            G 
74
Ariftalle's Mafter piece
 boil thefe in two pounds  of water to the half; add to the
 {training oil of eaftor two ounces; hiera  picra two dram?,
 and make a clyfter of it.
   If it be caufed by the retention and corruption of the feed,
 at the inftant of the  parcxyfm,  let the midwife take oil  of
 iillies,  marjoram,  and bays;  diffolving  in the  lame two
 grains of civet ; add as much mulk ;  Jet her dip her finger
 therein,  and  put into the  neck  of the womb, tickling and
rubbing the fame.
   The fit being over, proceed to the curing of the caufe.  If
 from the  retention of the  feed, a good hufbind will admi-
nifter a cure;  but thofe who cannot honeltly purchafe  that
cure, muft ufe fuch things as will dry up and diminifh the
feed ; as diciminua,  diacalaminthes. &c.   Amongft bota-
nicks, the feed of angus caftus is well efteemed ol; whether
taken inwardly, applyed outwardly, or receive a fuffumiga-
tion : It was  held in great honour amongft the Athenians,
for by it they did remain as pure veffels, and pfefervcd their
chaftity  by only ftrowing  it on  the bed whereon  they  lay,
and  hence the name of angus  caftus given  it,  as denoting
its effefts  Make an iflue in the  infide of e^ch leg, an h.<nd
breadth  below the knee. Make trochifks of agrick two fcru-
ples ; wild carrot-feed,  lignaloes,  of each  half a fcruple ;
wafhed turpentine,  three drams;  with omferve  of anthos
make a  bolus;  is of excellent ufe  in  this  cafe, eight drams
of it taken in  white wine,  or you may make pills  of it with
mithridate, and take them going to bed. Tike of white  bri-
ony-root dryed, and after the manner ofoarrots, one ounce:
put into a draught of wine, placing it  b .he fire, and when
it is warm drink it;  take myrrh, eaftor affofcetida,  of each
one fcruple ; faffron and me feed, of each four grains; make
eight pills, and take two every night going to bed.
  Galen  by his own example  commends  unto us  agarick
pulverized,  of which he  frequently  gave  one  fcruple  in
white wine ;  lay to the navel at bed  time a head  of garlick
bruifed,  fattening  it with a fwithing-band ;  make  a girdle
of galbacum for the waift, and alfo a  plaifter for the belly,
placing in one part of it civet and mufk, which mqft be  laid
 upon the navel. Take pulveris benedift. trohiflc of agarick,
 of each  two drams ;  mithridate  a fufficient  quantity;  and
 fo make two peffaries and  it will pur^e the matrix of wind
and flegm, foment the natural part with lallad oil  in which 
                      Completed.                      75

kas been boiled rue, feverfew and camomile.
                   CHAP.   VII.
           Of defcending or falling of the Mother.
      THE falling  down of the  womb is a relaxation of the
       ligatures,  whereby  the matrix is carried backward,
and in fome hangs  out in the  bignefs  of an e><;; •  Of thefe .  ,.
there are two  kinds diitinguilhed  by a  defcending and pre- .  ,/^ ^
cipitation. The defcending of the womb is,  when  it fi;iks^\vS.f'
down  to the entrance of the  privires, and  appears to the
eye  either not at all,  or very  little.  The piecibit'ation i.s,
when the  womb like a purfe is turned infide outwaid,  anci
hangs betwixt the thighs in the bignefs of a nipping glafs.
   Caufe]  Fhe caufe is external  or interna!; the external
cauie is difficult  child bir;h,  violent pulling away the fe-
cundine,  rafhnefs and inexperience  in drawing  away the
child, violent coughing, fneezing, falls, blows, and carrying
heavy burthens. The internal ccufe fn general, is overmuch
humidity  flowing into thefe  parts,  hindering '.he operation
of the womb,  whereby the  ligamerus  by which the womb
is firpportcd is relaxed.
   Thecauf: in particular is referred to be  in the retention
of the feed, or in  the fuppreffion of the monthly courfes.
   Signs.] The arfe,  gut,  and  bladder, oftentimes   are fo
cruflied that the paflage of both excrements  are hindered ;
if the urine flows foith white and thick,  and the midriff is
molefted,   the loins  are grieved, the pr^Iiies fink down to
the private parts ; or elfe comes clean  out.
   Prognoftics.] This grief pofleffing an old woman, is cured
with great difficulty ;  becaufe it weakens the faculty of the
womb,  and therefore though it be reduced into its   proper      «
place, yet  upon every little illnefs or indifpofition, it is fob-     •:'•;
jeft to return; and foit alfo  is with the younger fort, if the      4
difeafe  be inveterate.  If it be  caufed  by a putrefaction in
the nerve?, it is incurable.
   Cure.]  The womb being naturally placed between the
ftrait gut and the bladder, and now fallen down, ought to be
pu: up again, until the faculty both of the gut and the blad-       ^
de/ be  ftirred up ; nature being  unloaded of  her burden,
let the woman be laid on her back in fuch fort, that her legs
may be  higher than  her head ;  let her feet be drawn up to
her hinder parts,  with her knees fpread abroad; Then mo- 
    76              Arifiotle's  Mafter-piece

    lify the fwelling with  the oil of lillies and fweet almonds,
    or  with the decoction of mallous, beets, fenugrek,  and lint-
    feed ;  uh.n the inflamation is diffipated, let the midwife a-
^1  noint  her hand  with oil of maftick, and reduce the womb
    into its place.
                      CHAP.   VIII.
                Of the inflamation of the Womb.
    '""I""5, HE phlegmon, or inflamation of the matrix is an hu-
     X   mour pofl'effing  the whole womb, accompanied with
    n rural hear,  by obftruftion «nd gathering together of cor-
    rupt blood.
      Caufe ]  The caufe of this effect is fuppreffion of the men-
    fes, repletion of the whole body, immoderate ufe of Venus,
    often handling-the genital.', difficult child-birth, vehement
    agitation of the body falls, blows; to which alfo may be ad-
    ded the ufe of fharp peffaries. whereby not feldom the womb
    is inflamed, cupping-glefles alfo fiftened  to the pubis and
    hypogaftrium, draw the humours to the womb.
      Signs.] The  figns are anguifh, humours,  pain in  the
    head and ftomach ;  vomiting, coldnefs of the knees, convul-
    fions of the neck, doating trembling of the heart, often there
    is a llraitnefs of breath, by reafon of the heat which is com-
    municated  to the midrif, the breafts fympathizing with the
    womb, pained and fweiled. Further, If the forepart of  the
    matrix be enflamed, the privities are grieved, the urine is
    fuppreft, or flows  forth  with  difficulty.  If the after part,
    ihc loins and hack foffor, the  excrements are  retained ; if
    the lijht leg is  heavy, flaw to  motion,  in fo much, that
    fometimes  fhe ferns to halt.  And fo  if the left fide of the
    womb be inflamed  ; the left hip is pained, and  the left leg
    ii weaker than  the right.  If the neck of the  womb be re-
    frefhed the  midwife putting up  her finger, fhall  feel  the
    mouth of it retracted, and clofed up with  hardnefs about it.
      Prcgroitics^]  All inflamations  of the womb  are dange-
    rous if not deadly ; and efpecially,  if the total fubftance
    of  the matrix be enflSmed ; yet they are perilous if in the
    neck of the womb.  \ flux of the belly foretels health, if it
    be  natural  for nature works bell by the ufe of her own in*
    ftruments.
      Cure.] In the cure, firft let  humours flowing to the
    womb be repelled ; for effecting  of which  after the belly
    has been loofed by cooling clyftcrs,  phlebotomy  will be 
Completed.
•  77
needful; open therefore a vein in the arm (and if fhe be not
with child) the day after ftrike faphenna on both feet; fall-
en ligatures and cupping glafies to the arm ; and rub the
up per part. Purge lightly with caffia, rhubarb, fenna miro- m*%
bolans. Takeoffenna, two drams; annifeed one'fcruple ;
mirobolans half an ounce ; barley water a fufficient quanti-
ty ; make a decoftion, diflblve  in it fyrup of fuccory, with
rhuebarb two ounces; pulp of caffia half an ounce ; oil of
annifeed two  drops, a»d make a  potion.
  The air  muft be cold, all motion of the body efpecially
of the  lower  parts is forbidden,  vigilance  is commended ;
for by  fleep,the humours are carried inward,  by  which the
inflamation isincreafed;  eat fparingly, let  your drink be
barley  water, clarifyed whey ; and your meat chickens, and
chicken broth,  with endive, fuccory,  forrel, buglofs and
mallows.
                   C H  A P.   IX.
        Of the Schirrofity or hardnefs of the Womb.
     OF phlegmon  neglected,  or not perfeftly generated is a
      fchirrus of  the  matrix; Which  is a hard  unnatural
fwelling, infenfibly hindering the  operations of the womb,
and difpofing the  whole body to flothfulnefs.
  Caufe.] One of this difeafe may be afcribed  to want of
judgment in the phyfician;  as many empires admirdftering
to an inflamation  of the  womb,  do overmuch  refrigerate
and affringe the humour,  that it can  neither  pafs forward
nor backward, hence the  matter being condenfed,  degene-
rates into a lapidious hard fubftance.  Other caufes maybe
fuppreffion  of the  menflruous retention of the lochia, com-
monly called  the afcer purgings; eating of corrupt meats,
at in the difordinate longing called pica, to which breeding
women are fo often fubjeft.  It may proceed alfo  from ob-
itruftions and ulcers in the matrix or from evil effefts of the
liver and fpleen.
  Signs.] If the bottom of the womb be affected, ftie feels
as it were a heavy burthrn  reprefenting  a mole ;  yet dif-
fering in  that  the  breafts are attenuated and the  whole bo-
dy waxeth lefs. If the neck of the womb be affected,  no
outward humours  will appear ; the mouth of it is retrafted,
and being touched with the finger feels hard ; nor can floe
have the corny anv  of a ma without great paimand prickings 
73              Ariftotie's Mafter-piece
   Prognoftics.] A fchirrus confirmed is incurable, and will
turn into a  cancer  or incurable dropfy; and ending  in a
cancer proves deadly, becaufe the native heat in thofe parts
being almoft (mothered, can hardly again be reftored.
  Curt.] Where there is a repletion, phlebotomy is advifi.
ble ; wherefore opening the medina on both arms, and the
faphena on  both  feet, more efpecially if the  menfes be fup-
prefled.
  The air muft be temperate; grofs, vicious and fait meats
are forbidden, as pork, bull's btef, fifh, old cheefe, &c.
                    CHAP.   X.
              Of the  Dropfy of the Womb.
      THE uterine diopfy is an unnatural fwelling, elevated
      by the gathering together of wind or flegm in the ca-
vity, membranes or fubftance of the WMnb, by reafon of the
debility of the native  heat and aliment received, and fo it
turns into an excrement.
  The caufe3, are overmuch  cold  or moiftnefs  of the melt
and liver, immoderate drinking, eating of crude meats; all
which caufing a repletion, do fuffbeate the natural heat. It
may be  caufed likewife hy the overflowing of the courfes
or by any other immoderate evacuation.  To thefe may be
added abortives,  phlegmons and  fchirrofuies of the womb.
  Signs.] The figns of this  effeft  are thofe, the lower parts
of the helly, with  the genitals, are  puffed up and  pained;
the feet fwell, the  natural  colour of the face decays,  the
appetite is  depraved, and the heavinefs of the  whole body
concurs. If fhe turn:*  herfeif in the bed,  from one fide to
the  other,  a noife like  the overflowing of water is heard.
Water fometimes comes  from the  matrix.  If  the fwelling
be  caufed by wind,  the belly being  hot, it founds  like a
drum;  the guts  rumble, and  the wind breaks  through the
neck of the womb with a murmuring noile ; this effect may
be  diftinguifhed from a true conception many ways, as will
appear by the chapter of conception.
Prognoftics.] This effeft  foretels the fad ruin of the natural
functions, by that fingular confent the womb hath with the
liver; that therefore  the chacevy,  or  general dropfy  will
follow.
   Cure.] In the cure of this  difeafe, imitate the praftife of
Hypocrates, Firft, mitigate  the pain  with fomentation of
mclibte, rr-.c;t-jr/, mallows, lintfeed, camomile,  altheu. 
Completed.
79
Then let the womb be prepared with fyrup of hyflbp, cala-
mint, and mugwort,—In difeafes which have their rife from
moiftnefs, purge with pills. In effefts which are caufed by
emptinefs or drynefs purge with a potion.  Fallen a cupping
glafs to the belly, with  a great  fame, and alfo the navel, ef-
pecially if the fwelling be  flatulent: make an iffue on the
infide of each leg,  a hand breadth below the knee.
  The air muft be hot  and dry, moderate  exercifc is allow-
ed ; much fleep is forbidden,  fhe may eat the flefh of par-
tridges, larks, chickens, mountain birds, hares,  conies, &c.
Let her drink be thin wine.
                     CHAP.  XI.
              Of Males andfalfe Conceptions.
      THIS difeafe is called  by  the  Gieeks Mole,  and the
      caufe of this denomination is taken from  the load or
heavy weight of it, it being a mole,  or great lump  of
hard flefh burdening  the womb.
  It is defined to be an inarticulate piece  of flefli,  without
form begotton in the  matrix, and if it were a  true concep
tion.  In which  definition we are to note two things. Firft,
In that a mole is faid to be inai ticulate, and without form ;
it differs from monfters, which are both formate and articu-
late. Secondly, It  is  faid  to be as it  were, a true concepti-
on, which puts a diffeernce between a true conception and
a mole,  which difference  holds good three ways: Firft,  in
the genus,  in that a mole cannot be faid to be  an animal.
Secondly, In the fpecies,  becaufeit hath  no human figure,
and bears not the character of  a nun. Thirdly,  In  the in-
dividuum, for it hath no affinity with the  parent, either in
the whole body or any particular of the fame.
  Caufe.] About  the caufe  of this effeft amongft learned
authors I find vaiiety of judgments.  Some are of opinion,
that if the woman's feed  goes into the womb, and not the
man's; therefore is the  mole produced, others there  be that
affirm, that it is ingendered of  the menflruous blood.  But
if thefe  two  were granted, then  maids  by having their
courfes or thro' noftumal  pollutions,  might  be  fubjeft to
the fame, which never yet any  w re.  The true caufe of this
flefhy mole proceeds both from the man and from the wo-
man ; from corrupt and  barren feed in man,  and from the
menflruous blood in the woman both mixed together in the
cavity ©f the womb,  where nature finding herfeif weak 
80               Ariftotle's Mafter-piece
(yet defiring to maintain the perpetuity of her fpecies)  la-
bours to bring forth a vitious conception,  rather than none;
and fo inilead of a living creature, generates a lump of flcfli.
  Signs.]  The figns of a mole  are theie.  The  mjnthares
fuppieffed, the appetite is drepraved,  the  breafts fwell, the
belly  is fuddenly puffed up, and waxeth hard.  Thus  far the
figns of a breeding  woman,  and one that beareth a mole,
are all one. I will fhew you how they differ, The  firft fign
of difference is taken from the  motion of  the mole, it may
be felt to move in the womb before the thiid month,  which
the  infant  cannot; yet the motion cannot be underftood of
an intelligent  power in the mole,  but the faculty  of the
womb, and  the  feminal fpirits, diffufe thro' the fubftance
of the mole, for it lives n-^r a live animal,  but  a vegetative
in manner of a plant.  And fecondly, In a mole the belly is
fuddenly  puffed  up,  but in a true conception the belly is
firft retryfted,  and then rifeth up bv degrees.  The belly
being preffed with the  hand, the mole  gives way, and the
hand  being taken away, it returns to  the  place again ;  but
a child in  the womb, tho' preffed with the hand moves not
prefently,  and being removed,  returns flowly or not at all.
Laftly, the children continue in the womb not above  eleven
months ;  but a mole  continues fometimes four or five years,
more  or 1 cfo, according as it is fattened  in the matrix. I
have known when  a mole hath fallen away in  four  or five
months.
  If it remain until the eleventh month the legs wax  feeble,
and the whole body confumes, only the fwelling of the belly
{till increafes;  which makes fome think that they are drop-
fica),  though there  be little* reafon  for it.  For in the dropfy,
legs fwell  and  grow big, but in a mole they  confume and
wither.
  Prc-gnoP.ics.] If  at the delivery  of a mole the P.ux of the
blood be great,  it fhews the more danger, becaufe the par's
of the nutrition  having been violated  by  the flowing back
of the fupetfluous humours,  where the natural he-t  is con-
fumed; and then parting wfoo fo much  of the bJood,  the
\% oman thereby is weai.ened  in all her faculties,  that fhe
cannot fudiift without difficulty.
  Cure.]  We are taught in the fchool of  I'ypocrate-,  that
phlebotomy caufith abortion;  by  tak:ng al! that nourifh«
ment which fhould prefeive the life of '.ex child. Where- 
                       CompUted.                    g i

fore, that this vicious conception may be deprived of that
vegetive fap by  which it lives, open  the  liver vein and the
faphena in both the feet ;  fallen cupping glaffes to the loins
and fides of the belly, which done ice the  uterine parts be
firft molified, and then the expulfive quality be provoked to
expel the  burthen
   To laxate  the  ligature of the mole, take mallows, wiih
the roots three  handfuls; camomile, melilote, pellitory of
the wall, violet leaves, mercury,  roots of fennel, parfley of
each two handfuh ;  lintfeed, fenugreek,  each one pound ;
boil  them in water,  and let her fit therein up to the  navel.
At the going out of the  bath, anoint the privities and reins
with this unguent following : Take  oil of camomile, lillies,
fweet almonds,  each one ounce ; frefh butter labdanum, am-
moniac of each  half an ounce; with  the oil of lintfeed make
an unguent.
   The air muft be  tolerably hot and dry,  and  dry diet,
fuch as do molify and attenuate, fhe may drink white wine.

                CHAP.    XII.
              Of the Signs  of Conception.
   IGNORANCE  makes women become murderers  of  the
    fruit of  their own bodies, many  having  conceived, and
thereupon finding themfelves out of order, and not  know-
ing rightly the  caufe, do either run to the Ihop of  their own
conceit,  and take what they  think fit, or  elfe (as  the cuf o n
is) they  fend to the phyfician  for a  cure, and he not rer-
ceiving the caufe of their grief (feeling that no certain judg-
ment can be given by the urine)  prefcribes  what he thinks
belt, perhaps fome ftrong  dieuertick or  cathartick potion,
whereby the conception is deftroyed.  Wherefore Hypocra-
tes fay?, There  is a neceffity that women fhould be inltrufted
in the knowledge of  conception, that the parent as  well as
the child might be laved from  danger.   I  will  therefore
give you  fome inftruftions, by  which every  one  may know
whether Ihe be  with child or not.   The figns of conception
fhall  be taken from the  woman,  from the urine,  from the
infant, and  from experiment.
  Signs t«ken from the  woman  are thefe :   The firft day
after conception fhe  feels a light quivering or chilnefs run-
ning through the  whole body ;  a tickling in  the womb, a
little pain in the lower part  of the  belly.   Ten  or twelve 
8l                Ariftotle's Mafter-piece

days after the head is affofted with giddinefs, the eyes with
dimnels of fight:  Then  follows red pimples  in the face,
with a blue circle about the eyes, the breaft fwell and grow
hard with fome pain and prickling in them, the belly foon
finkeih, and  rifeth again  by digrces, with  a hardnefs about
the navel.  The nipples of the bieSt grow red,  the  heart
beats  inordinately, thi1 natural appetite is dejected ; yet  fhe
has a longing defire a! er ftranje meat?, the neck of the womb
is retracted,  that it can hardly be felt with the  finger being
put up:  And this  is an  infallible fign.   She  is hidden.y
merry, and foon  melancholy ; the monthly courfes are fuid
without any evident caufe; the excrements of  the guts  aij
unaccuftomedly  retained  by the  womb preffing the get
gu?s,  and her defoeto Venus is abated.
   Thefureft  fign is taken from the  infant,  which begins to
move in the womb the third or fourth month. A>d that  not
in the manner of a mah, from one fide to  another, rufhing
like a {tone but fo foft'y, as may be perceived  by applying
the hand hot  upon the belly.
   Signs taken from the urine : The beft writers do affirm,
that the urine of a woman  with child is  white,  and h .th
little  mites like thofe in  the fun beams, afcending and  de-
fcending in it, a cloud fwimruing  alott in  an  opal  coh-ur,
the fediments being divided by fhaking the urine, appears
like carded wool, the middle of her time toe urine turneth
yellow, next red, and laftly, black, with a  red cloud. Signs
taken from experience.   At  night going  ta  bed,  let  her
drink  water  and honey,  afterwards it fhe  feels a be^tfog
 pain  in her belly and about her navel, fhe  hath conceivea.
Or let her take the juice of cardus, and if fhe vomireth it
 up, it is a  fign of conception.  Caft  a clean needle into a
 woman's urine,  put it into a bafon,  let it ftand ad  nig1 t,
 and in the morning if it be coloured with red fpots, fhe hath
 conceived, but if black or rufty, fhe hath  not.
   Signs taken bom the fex, to fhew whether  it be male or
 female.  Being, with  child of a male, the right bread fwdls
 firft,  the right eye is more lively than the left, her face well
 coloured, becaufe fuch as  the blcod is, fuch is the colour;
 and the male is conceived  in purer  blood, vand  more perfeft
 feed than the fern de ; red mo es inthe urine, fettling down
 the fediments, fo e:ei that a mde isconceived,  but  if they
 be white a fem-.c.  Put the worn-As urine which is with 
Completed.
83
child into a glafs bottle, let it ftand clofe flopped three days,
then  {train it through a fine cloth, and  you fhall find little
living creatures.  If they  be red it is a male, ifwhiieis  is
a female.   To conclude, the moft certtin fign  to gire cre-
dit unto,  is the motion of  the infant,  for'the male  moves in
the third  month, and the  female in the  fourth.
                 CHAP.    XIII.
                   Of Untitnely Births.
       WHEN the fruit  of the womb comes forth before the
        feventh month, (that is,  before it c^mes of maturi-
ty) it is faid to  be abortive,  (I mean  not live) if it be born
in the eighth month may feem fliange, yet it is true ; the
caufe thereof by fome is  afcribed unto the  phnet  under
which the child is born ; for every month  ficm  the con-
ception to the birth is  governed by his proper planet. And
in the eLhih month Saturn doth predonvna-e, wh'cb is cold
and dry ;  cnldncfs being an titter enerr y to life,  deiboys the
nature of  the c'lild   ffop icrater gwes a better  reafon, viz.
The  infant being every w:y pofeftand  comp'e<<t  in the
feventh rcnnth defires more air  and nutriment  chan it had
before; which,  becaufe it cannot obtaio.  he labours  for   a
paffage  to  go  out ; and  if  hu fpirits  become weak and
fain', and  have hoft ength  fufficient to bn*ak the membranes
and come  forth,  as  is decreed  by na-me,  that he fhould
continue  ir. the womb  tSl the fonth  month,  that in that
time  his wearied  fpirits might  again  be iliengihened and
refrefhed ;  but if he returns to ftrive again,the eight month,
and be born, he cannot live, becaufe the day of his  binh
is either pall or to come.  For  in  the  eighth month  (foith
Aven) he  is weak and infirm ; and therefore being caft into
the cold air, his fpirits cannot be  fupported.
  Cure.]  Untimely birth  may be caufed by cold,  for as it
maketh the fruit of the tree to wither and to fall down be-
fore it be ripe, fo doth  it  nip the fruit of the womb before
it comes to full  perfections, and  makes  it to be  abortive;
fometimes by humidity weaken ng the faculty that the fruit
cannot be reftrained till the due time. By drynefior empti-
nefs defrauding the  child  of its nouriffcment.  By one of
thefe alvine  fluxes of phlebotomy  and other evacuations; by
inflammations  of  the  womb  and   other   {harp  difeaf-
es.  Sometimes  is caufed  by joy,  laughter,  anger, and ef-
pecially fear;  for in that the heat forfakes  the womb, and 
84               Ariftode's  Mafter piece

runs to the heart for help there,  (and  fo the cold ftrikes in
the matrix, v.-hereby  the  ligaments  are  relaxed, and  fa
abortion follows :) Wherefore Plato in his time command-
ed that the  women fhould fhun all temptations of  immode-
rate joy and p!c?fure, and hkewife  avoid  all occafions  of
fear and grief.   ' bortion alfo may be  caufed by  the  cor-
ruption of the air,  by filthy odours, and efpecially by the
fmell of a fnuff of a candle ; alfo by falls, blows, violent ex-
ercife,  leaping,  dancing, &c.
   Signs.]  Signs of future abortion are  extenuation  of the
beafts,  with a flux of watry milk, pain in the womb,'hea-
vinefs in the head, unufual wearinefs in the hips and thighs,
flowing of courfes, figns foretelling the fruit to be dead  in
the womb, are hallownefs et the eyes,  pain in  the  head,
a'nguifh, horrors, palenefs of the face and  lips,  gnawing of
the ftomach,  no motion of the infant, co'dnefs  and  loofe-
nefs of the mouth of the womb, and thicknefs  of  the belly,
which  was  above is fallen down, watry and  bloody excre-
ments come from the matrix.
                CHAP.   XIV.
             DireSlions  for Breeding Women.
       THE prevention of untimely births  confifts in taking
       away the afore-mentioned caufes; which muft be ef-
fected  before and after the conception.
   Before conception, if the body be   over-hot,  cold, dry,
 or mcift,  correct it with the contraries; if cacochmical,
 purge  it;  if plethroical, open the liver vein, if too  grofs;
extenuate it;  if too lean, corroborate and  nourifh it.   All
difeafes of  the womb muft be removed,  as  I have fhewed.
   After conception, let  the air  be  temperate,  fleep  not
overmuch, avoid watching,  exercife of body, paffions of  the
mind,  loud clamours and  filthy fmells; fweet  odours  are
alfo to be rejefted of  thofe  that  are  hyfterical.  Abftrain
from all things that provoke either the urine or courfes, al-
 fo from fait, fharp and windy meats;  a moderate diet fhould
 be obferved.
   The couch is another accident which accompanieth breed-
ing women,  and puts them in great danger of mifcarrying,
 by a continual  diftillation  falling from  the brain.  To pre-
 vent which,  fhave away the hair  from the  cornal and fatical
coiffures,  and apply  thereon this  plaifter.  Take refinae half
 an ounce;  landani one dram; citron peel, lign  aloes; oli- 
Completed.                     S5
 bsmi,  of each one dram , ftirachis liquids and ficcse, a fuf-
 fici'ent quantity; diffolve the gums  in vinegar,  and make a
 plaifter at night going  to bed, let her take a fume of thefe
 trochifks caft upon the coals.
   In breeding women  the,re isa corrupted/inaJJer generated,
 which flowing to the ventricle, dejeftet.h^ihe appetite, and
 caufeth vomiting.  And the ftomach being weak, not able
 to digeft this matter., fometimes fends it to the guts, where-
 by is caufed a flux in  the belly,  which  greatly ftirreth up
 the faculty  of the womb.   To prevent all  thefe  dangers,
 the ftomach  muft be  corroborated  as  follows: take  lign,
 aloes, nutmeg,  of each one.dram  ; mace, clove, laudanum,
 of each  two  fcruples;  oil of fpike an ounce; rrtifk two
 grains;  oil of maftick, quinces,  worm-wood,  of each  half
 an ounce;  make an'unguent  for the ftomach to be applied
 before meals.   Another accident which  perp'exeth a  wo-
 man with child is fwelling of the legs, which happens the
 firft  three  months  by fuperfluous humours falling down
 from  the liver ; {or  the cure whereof,  take otl  of rofes two
 drams ;  fait,  vinegar,  of each one dram ;  fhake  them toge-
 ther until the fait be diflblved, and anoint the legs hot there-
 with, .chaffing it with the hand : by purfuing  it more pro-
 perly if it may be done without  danger, as it may  be in the
 fourth, fifth, or fixt'h month of purgation : for  the child in
 the womb  is compared.to an apple on  the  tree : the firft
 three months it is weak  and tender, fubjeft with the apple
 to fall away ;  but afterwards the membranes being  ftren.gt.h-
 ened, the  fruit remains'firmly  faftened to the  womb, no:
 apt to mifchances, and fo continues all  the feventh montfi;
 till growing nearer the time, of its maturity, the ligaments
 are again relaxed, (life an apple that  is almoft lipe)  and
 grows loofer every day until the  fixed   time of'delivery. If
 therefore the  body is in  real need of  purging,  ftie may do
 it without danger in the fourth, fifth, or fix'h month; but
 not before nor after, unlefs  in fomefharp difeafes,  in which
 the mother and. child  both are like to perifh.
   Apply it to  the reips in the winter time, and  remove it
 every twenty four hours, left the rein's .be over hot thcre-
r with. In the interim  anoint the privities and reins with un-
 guent, confitifite; but if it be fummefSime, and  the reins
.be hot, this plaifter  is  more proper; cake of red rofes  one 
56               Ariftotle's Mafter piece
pound ; maftick,  red finders,  of each two drams; pome-
granate peel, prepared coriander, of each two drams and a
half; barberries two fcruples; oil of maftick  and quinces,
of each one  ounce; juice of plaintain two drams;  with
pitch make a plaifter; anoint the  reins alfo with unguen-
tum, fandal.
              a    CHAP.   XV.
DireSlions to be obferved by Women at the time of their falling
  in%Labour, in order to their fafe  Delivery, with Directions
  for Midwives.
     AND  thus having given  neceflary  directions  for child
      bearing women, how to govern  themfelves during
the time of their pregnancy, I fhall add what is  neceflary
for  them to obferve in order to their delivery.
  The time of birth drawing near, let the woman fend for
a fltilful midwife, and  that rather  too foon than too late;
and againft which time,  let her  prepare a  pallet, bed  or
couch, near the fire, that the midwife and her affiftants may
pafs round, and help as occafion  requires,  having a change
of linen ready, and a fmall ftool to  reft her feet againft, fhe
having more force when  they are bowed,  than when  they
are otherwife.
  Having thus provided,  when the woman feels her pain
come, and weather not cold, let  her walk about the room,
refting herfeif by  turns upon the bed, and fo expeft the
coming down of her water, which is an humour contracted
in one of the outward membranes,  and flows thence when
it is broke the ftruggling of the child, there being no direct
time fixed for the efflux, though generally it flows not above
two hoars before the birth,  motion will likewife caufe the
womb to open and dilate itfelf, when lying long in bed will
be uneafy, yet if fhe be very weak, fhe  may take fome gen-
tle cordial to refrefh herfeif, if her pain  will permit.
  If her travail be  tedious, fhe may revive her fpirits with
taking chicken or mutton  broth, or ftie may  take a poached
fig,  but muft take heed of eating to excefs.
  As for the poftures women are delivered in, they are ma-
ny, fome lying in their beds,  fome fitting  in their bed, or
chair  ; fome again on  their  knees, being  fiipported upon
their  arms : but the  moft fafe and commodious way is jn (he
bed,  and  then the  midwife  ought to mind the following
rules. Let lur lay the  wom^n upon her back,  her he4d a 
Comphttd.
?7
little raifed  by the help of a pillow, having the like help to
fupport her reins and buttocks,  and that her rump may lie
high ; for if ftie lies low, {he cannot be well delivered. Let
her keep her knees and thighs as far diftant as ftie can,  her
legs  bowed together and her buttocks,  the  foals of her feet
and  heels being placed  on a little'log of timber  placed for
that purpofe, that fhe may ftrain the ftronger; And then to
facilitate it,  let a woman  ftroke or prefs the upper part of
the belly gently, and by degrees. Nor mtift the woman her-
feif  be taint hearted, but of good courage forcing heifelf, by
ftraining and holding her breath.
   In cafe of delivery, the midwife muft wait with patience
till the child, or other members, burtl  the membrane; for
if through ignorance, or hafte to go to other women as fome
have done,  the midwife  tare the membrane  with her nails
fhe endangers  both the woman and  the child ; for its lying
dryland wanting that  flipprinefs thai thould  make it t-afy,
it comes forth with great  pain.
   When the head appears, the midwife muft gently hold it
between her hands, and draw the child at fuch times  as the
woman's pains are upon her, and at no other; flipping by
degrees her fore fingers under his arm pits, not ufing a  rough
hand in drawing it forth, left by that means, the  tender in-
fsntant receive any dcfoimity of body.  As foon as the child
is taken forth, which is for the molt  part with its face down-
wards,  let it be laid on its back, that  it may more  freely
receive external refpiration ; then.cut the navel firing  about
three inches from the body, tying  that end which adheres
to the  belly with a fi ken firing as near as you can,  then
cover  the head and  ftomach of the child  well,  fuffering
nothing to come upon the face.
   The child being thus brought forth,  and if healthy,  lay
it by,  and let the midwife  regard the  patient in drawing
forth the fecundines;  and  this fhe may do by wagging
and  flirring them up and down, and afterwards with a gen-
tle hand drawing  them forth: And  if the work be difficult
let the  woman hold fait in her hands, and thereby  lhe will
know whether the membranes  be broke or not.  It may be
alfo)  known by caufing her to ftrain or vomit,  by  putting a
finger down her throat, or by {training or moving her lower
parts, but let all be done out of hand.  If this fail, let her 
83              Ariftotie's Mafter.piece
 take a draft of raw elder-water, or yolk of a new laid e%^,
 and fmell to a piece of affafcetida, efpecially  if fhe be trou-
 bled with a windy-cholick.  If fhe happens to take cold, it
 is a great obftruftion to the coming down of the fecundines;
 and in fuch cafes .the  women  ought to chaff" che womans
 belly gently not only  to break the  wind,  but oblige the fe-
 cundines to come down.  But thefe  proving ineffectual, the
 midwife muft chatter  with her hand the extern or orifice of
 the womb, and gentle draw  it forth.
                   CHAP.  XVI.
 /»  Cafe of Extremity, what ought to be obferved; efpecially to
   Women who in their Travail,  are attended  with a Flux of
   blood,  Convultions, and fits of the  wind.
   IF the  woman's labour be hard and difficult,  greater re-
     gard muft be had  then, than at other times;  and firft of
 all the fituation of the womb and  pofture of lyi».g muft be
 rrofs the bed, being held by ftrong perlons to prevent her
 flipping  down,  or moving  herfeif  in the operation of the
 furgeon : Her thighs  muft be put afunder, as far diftant as
 may be,  and fo held :  whilft her head muft lean upon a bollt-
 er, and  the reigns of  her kjack be fupported  after the fame
 manner; her rumps and buttocks being lifted up, obferving
 to cover  her ftomach,  belly and thighs with warm linen, to
 keep them from the cold.
   The woman  being in  this pofture,  let the operator put
 up his hand, if he find the neek of the  womb dilated,  and
 remove the contrafted blood that obftrufts the paffage of the
 birth : and having by degrees gently made way, let him ten*
 derly move the infant, his hand being firft anointed  with
 fweet buLter, or a harmlefs pomatum. And if the waters be
 not come down,  then without difficulty  may they be let
 foth ; when, if the infant fliould attempt to  break out with
 its head  foremoft, or-oofs, he may  gently  turn-it to find the
 feet; which having done, let him  draw forth the one  and
 fallen it  to a ribbon,  then put  it up again, and by degrees
 find the other, bringing  them as clofe and even as may be,
 and between whiles, let the woman breathe, urging her to
 ftrain to help nature to perfeft the  birth,  that he may draw
 it forth ;  and the readier to do it,  that hi* hold may be the
'furer, he muft wrap a linen cloath obout the child's thighs
 obferving to bring it  into the world, witii  h- face down-
 wards. 
Completed.
«9
   In cafe of a  flux of blood,  if the neck of the womb be
 open, it muft be confidered whether the infant or fecundine
 comes  fiift,  which the latter  fometimes happening to do,
 flops the  mouth  of  the  w6mb,  and  hinders  the birth ;
 endangering both  the woman and Uhe child ; but in  this
 cafe the fecundines muft be removed by a fwift turn ;  ind
 indeed they, have fo by their coming down deceived many,
 who feeling their foftnefs, fuppofed the womb was hot di-
 lated,  and by this means the woman and the child, or at
 leaft the latter has baen loft. The fecundines  moved, the
 child muft be fought  for,  and drawn forth, as has been di-
 refted ; and if in fuch a cafe  the woman or child die, the
 midwife or forgeon is blamelefs, becaufe they did their true
 endeavour.
   If it appears upon enquiry, that the fecundines comes firft,
 let the woman be delivered with all convenient expedition,
 becaufe a great flux of blood will  follow ;  for the veins are
 opened, and upon  this account  two things are to be confi-
 dered.
   Firft, The manner of the fecundines advancing, whether
 it be much or little;  if the former, and the head of the child
 appear firft, it  may be guided and direfted tovyjrds  the neck
 of the womb as in the cafe  of natural births; but if there
 appear any  difficulty tin  the  delivery,  the  beft way is to
 fearch  for the feet, and thereby  draw it  forth ; but if the
 latter, the fecundine/may  be put back with a gentle hand:
 and the child firft taken forth.
   But  if the fecundine be far advanced,  fo that it cannot be
 put back, and  the child follow it clofe,  then  are the fecun-
 dines to be taken forth with much care, as/wift as may be,
 and laid without cutting the entrail that is fattened to them;
 for thereby you may  be guided to  the infant, which, whe-
 ther alive or dead, muft be drawn forth by the feet in all
 hafte; though it is not to be acted unlefs in cafe of any great
 neceffity, for in other cafes the fecundines, ought  to come
 laft.
   And  in  drawing  forth a dead child, let thefe directions
 be ca.r.-fully obferved by  the  forgeon, viz. if the  child be
 found dead, its head foiemoft,  delivery will be the more  dSf-
 fieuh : For it  is appaient ii^n the woman's ftrength begins
'toiiti her, and that  the chijd being dead, and wanting its
                          H3
t 
• -              A":  ":  "'->.'■„

natural force C'an ben..1 vv. ^.fTi.'bi.^ :   ' ,<, ;,M;very, whcre-
fo e the mod certain a A  i-.e w . , for  the furgeon is to put
his left hand.  Aiding it as  hoSyw in  the palm as he can,
in>o the neck  of the womb, and into  the part thereof to-
wards  the foet, and then  between the  head  of the infant
and the neck   of the matrix,  when  having a hook  in  the
right hand couch it cloff, and flip it above  the left hand,
between the head of the child and the  flat of the hand, fix-
ing it in the bars of the temple towards the eye ;  for want
of a convenient coming at thefe in the occiputal bone  ob-
fcrve the  ftill  to the left hand in its place, and with it gently
moving and ftirring the head;  and fo  with the right  hand
and hook  draw the child forward ; admonifhing the woman
to put  forth her utmoft  ftrength, ftill  drawing when the
woman's  pangs are  upon her; the head being drawn  out,
with all fpeed he muft flip his hand up  under  the arm holes
of the  child,  and take it quite out;  giving thefe things to
the woman, viz. A toaft  of fine wheaten bread in  a quarter
of an ounce of ipocras wine.
  If it fo happen that any inflammation,  fwelling of  con-
gealed  blood be contrafted in the matrix, under the film of
thofe tumours, either  before or after the birth, where the
matter  appears thinner, then let the midwife  with  a  pen-
knife or incifion-inftrument launch  it, and prefs  out the
corruption, healing it with  a peflary dipped in oil of red
rofes.
  If at any time through  cold, or fbme violence,  the child
happen to be  fwelled in any part, or hath contrafted a wa-
tery  humour; if it remain alive fuch  means muft be ufed
as are leaft injurious to the child and mother; but if  it be
dead, that humour  muft be let out by incifion to facilitate
the birth.
  If (as it often happens) that the child comes with its feet
foremoft,  and  the hands dilating themfelves from the hips  ;
in fuch cafes the midwife  muft be provided with  neceflary
ointments to ftroke  and anoint the infant with, to help its
coming forth,  leaft it turn again into the womb, holding at
the fame time, both the arms of the infant  clofe to the  hips,
that fo it may iflue forth  after its manner, but if it proves
too big,  the  womb muft  be well anointed.  The woman
may alfo take fneezing powder ro make her  ftrain; thofe
who attend may gently ftroke  her belly to make the birth 
Completed.
9*
defcend,  ard keep the birth from retiring b?ek.
  And fometimes it falls out that the child coming with
the feet foremoft, has its arm-,  ext  nded above its he.i_i;
but the midwife mull not receive it fo, but put it back again
into the  womb;  unlefs the paffage be extraordinary ^k'.,
and then lhe mu'.t anoint the child and the womb ;  nor is it
fafe to draw it forth, which may be  done in this manner;
the woman muft be laid on her back,  with her head depref-
fed, and her buttocks raifed; and the  midwife, with a gen.
tie hand, muft comprefs the belly of the woman towards
the midwife, by that means to put back the infant, obferv-
ing to turn the face  of the child  towards the back of its
mother, railing up its thighs and buttocks toward her naval,
that fo the  birth may be more natural.
   If  a child happens to come forth with one foot, the arm
being extended along the fide, and   the other foot turned
backward,  then muft the  woman be inftantly  brought to
her bed, and laid in the pofture above defcribed,  at which
time the midwife  muft carefully put back the foot f© appear-
ing, and the woman rocking herfeif from one fide  to  the
other, till fhe find the  child is  turned, but muft not alter
her pofture, nor turn upon her face.   After which ftie may
expeft her  pains,  and muft have great affiltance and cordi-
als to revive and fupport her fpirits.
   At other times it happens th»: the child lies aci< fs in the
womb, and falls upon its fide ; in this cafe the woman muft
not be urged in her  labour, neither can any expeft the birth
in fuch a manner; therefore the midwife when fhe finds it
fo,  muft ufe great diligence to reduce it to  its right form,
or at leaft to fuch a  form in the womb, as may  make  the
delivery poffible  and moft eafy, by  moving the buttocks,
and guiding the head to the paffage;  and if fhe be fuccefs-
ful herein,   let her  again try by  rocking herfeif to and fro,
and wait with patience till  it alter its manner of lying.
  Sometimes the child  haftens the birth, by expanding its
legs and its arms; in which as in the former the woman muft
rock herfeif, but not with violence ; till fhe find thofe parts
fall to their proper llations, or it may be done by a gentle
compreffion of the womb ; but if neither of them prevail,
the midwife with  her hand muft clofe the legs of the infant,
and if fhe come at  them,  do the like to the arms, and fo
draw it forth, but  if it can  be reduced of  itfelf to the 
e-z               Arifiotlt's Mafier-piece
pofture of a natural birth,  it is better.
  If the infant comes forward with both knees foremoft and
the hands hanging  down  upon the thighs, then muft the
midwife put both knees upward,  till the feet appear; tak-
ing hold of which with her left hand, let her keep her right
hand on the fide of the child,  and in that pofture endeavour
to bring it forth.         :•
  iBut if fhe cannot  do this, then alfo muft the woman rock
herfeif till the child is in  a  more  convenient pofture for
delivery.
  Sometimes it happens, that the child pafles forward with
One arm ftretched on its thighs, and the other raifed over
its head,  and the feet ftretched out at length in the womb ;
in fuch a cafe the midwife muft not attempt to leceive the
child in that pofture, but muft lay the woman on the bed,
in the manner aforefaid, making a foft and gentle cojnpref-
fion on her belly,  to oblige the nhild to  retire, which if it
does not, then muft the midwife thruftit back by  the fhoul-
der,  and bring the  arm that  was ftretched above the head
tq. its right ftation ; for there  is more danger in thefe extre-
mi'ies; and therefore the  midwife muft anoint her hands
fiift, and the womb of  the woman  with fweet butter, or a
proper pomatum,  thrufting her hand  as near as  fhe can to
the arm of  the infant,-and bring it  to the fide.
  But if this c-nnot be done, fct the woman be laid on her
bed to reft a while,  in which time  perhaps the child  may
be reduced  to a better pofture,  which the midwt'e finding,
fhe muft draw tenderly the arms clofe to the  hips, and  fo
recriveit.
  I: an infant comes with its  buttocks foremoft, and almoft
double, then the midwife  anointing her  hiwd muft thrult
it up, and gently heaving  up the buttocks and back,  ftrive
to turn the head to the pzfug:,  but not too haftily, left the
infant's retiring fhould fhipe it worfe ;  and therefore it can-
not be turned with the hand, the woman muft rock herfeif
on the bed taking fome  comfortable things  as may fuppoit
her fpirits,  ti'd fhe perceives the cnild to turn.
  If the child's neck be bowed, and it comes forward  \\ ith
its moulder, as  fometimes it doth,  with the hand and feet
fire:died upwards, the midwife muft rcr-ily  move the iheju:-
ders, that fhe may d-irift the  head to the pafiVe-  and ihj
Li-ter to afoft it, the woman  muft rock hcrl'c i a; * fort Lid, 
Completed..                    93
  Thefe, and other the like methods are to be obferved, in
cafe a women hath twins,  or  three children-at a  birth, as
fometimes happens.  For as the fingle birth hath but  one
natural way, and many unnatural forms, even fo  it may be
in double or treble births.
  Wherefore in all  fuch cafes, the midwife muft take care
to receive that  firft which is neareft the  paflage ; but  not
Jetting the other go,  left by retiring it fliould  change  the
form. And when one is born, fhe muft be fpeedy in bring-
ing forth the other; and this birth, if it be in the natural
way, is  more  eafy, becaufe children  are  commonly  lefs
than thofe of a fingle birth, and fo require a  lefler paffage.
But if this birth come unnaturally it is far more dangerous
than the other.
   In  the birth of twin?,  let the midwife  be very careful
that the fecundines, be naturally brought  fourth, left  the
womb being delivered of its burden fail, and fo the fecun-
dines continue longer than is confiftent with  the woman's
fafety.
   But if one of the twins happen to come with the head,
and the other with the feet, foremoft, then let the midwife
deliver the natural birth firft,  and if fhe cannot return the
other,  draw it out  in the  pofture  it preffes forward,  but if
that with its feet downward be fo.-cmoft,  fhe may deliver
that firft turning the other fide.
   But in this cafe, the midwife  muft carefully fee that  it
be not a monftrous biith,  inftead of twins a body with two
heads, or two  bodies joined together,  which fhe may foon
fee; if both the heads come foremoft, by putting up her
hand between them as high as fhe  can, and then if fhe find
they are twins, fhe may gently  put one of  them afide to
make way for  the other, taking the firft  which is moil ad-
vanced, leaving the other,  that lhe do  not change its fitu-
ation.
   And for the fafety of the firft child, as  foon as it  comes
forth out of the womb, the  midwife muft tie the  navel-
ftring as has been  before direfted,  and alfo bind it with a
large and long fillet, the part of the navel  :hat is fallencd
to the fecundines the more  ready to find them.
  The fecond infant being born, let the midwife carefully
examine whether there be  not two fecundines,  for  fome-
times it falls out, that by the fhortnefs of the ligaments, it 
94
Arl^t>,'f  M■ ft.'rpiece
retires bnck to the j. p-j.foice of the w.-,nvn.   Wherefore
left the worn ii fhould  ciofe, it is mod expebeot to halten
them  forth with all  convenient fpeed.
   If two infants are joinel together by foe bidv as fome-
times  it monftronflj,  falls out, then though me h ad--  come
forem ft  yet  it is convenient,  if poffible,  to  turn ^them,
and draw them forth by the feet,  obleiving thst  w.»cn they
come  to thchip3,  to draw  th:m out af foon as may be.
   And  here great care cueh: to  be  ufed  in  anointing and
widening  the  paflage.    But  thefe  fort of biiths rarely
happen.
               CHAP.     XVII.
    How Child bearing Women are ordered after delivery.
   IF a woman has had very  hard labour, it is neceflary fhe
    fhould be wrapt up in a fheep's fkin taken off before it
is cold, applying the  ffofhy  fide to her reins and belly. Or,
for want  of this, the fkin of a  hare  or coney,  flead  off as
icon at  killed,  may be applied to the fame" parts.
   Let the wor.nn  afterwards be fwathed with fine  linen
cloth, about  a quarter of a yard in breadth,  chaffing her
belly  before it is fwathed, with oil of St. John's wort: —
After  that raife  up the  matrix with  a linen cloth  many
times folded,  then with a little pillow, or quilt,  cover her
flanks,  and place theiV.athe fomevthat above the haunches,
winding it pre*tp ftiff", applying at  the lame time a warm
cloth to her nipples,  ar.d  not prefently applyirg the reme-
dies to  keep back the milk, by  realon of  the  body at fuch
a time, is out of frame; for there is neither vein nor artery
which  does not ftrongly beat, and  remedies to drive back
the milk, being of a diflblving  nature, it  is  impioper to
 apply them to the brealts, during fuch diforder, left  by fo
 doing, evil humours  be contrafted in the  breaft.   Where-
 fore  twelve hours at leaft ought to be allowed for the circu-
 lation and fettlement of the blood,  and what was caft upon
 the lungs, by the vehement agitation during the labour, to
 ret're to its proper recepticles.
    She  muft by no means  fleep prefently after delivery, but
 about four houisafter, fhe may  take broth,  caudle, or fuch
 liquid  viftuals as are nourifhing ; and if fhe be difpofed to
 fleep,  fhe may be  vtry^  fafoly  permitted.   And  this is as
 much  (in c«tfe of a natural birth) as ought immediately te
 be done. 
Completed,
95
   If the mother intend  to nurfe her own child, fhe may
take fomething more than ordinary, to increase the milk by
degrees,  which muft be of no continuance,  but drawn  ei ■
ther by the child or otherwife. In this cafe likewife •bferve,
to  let her have corriander  or fennel feeds,  boiled in her
barley broth, and if no'fever trouble her,  ftie may  drink
now and  then a fmall quantity of  white wine or claret.
   And after the fear of a fever,  or  contraction of humour
in the breaft is over,  (he may be nourifhed more plentifully
with the broth of pullets, or veal, &c.  which muft not be
till after eight days {rom the  time of her delivery, at which
time the womb, unlefs fome accident  hinder, has purged
itfelf.  It will then be expedient  to  give cold meats, but
let it be fparing, that fo fhe may the better gather ftrength.
   And  let her during that rime, reft quietly and free from
difturbance, not fleeping in  the day time if fhe can avoid
it.
              CHAP.    XVIII.
     How to expel the Cholic from Women in Child-birth.
      THESE pains frequently afflift the women nolefsthan
       in pains of her labour, and are by the ignorant taken
many times the one for the other,  and fometimes they hap-
pen both at the fame inftant, which is occafioned by a raw,
crude, and watry matter in the ftomach, contrafted through
ill  digeftion, and while  fuch pain continues the woman's
travail is retarded.
   Therefore to expel fits of the cholic, Take two ounces
of oil of fweet almonds,  and an ounce of cinnamon water,
with three or  four  drops of the fpirit  of ginger,  then  let
the woman drink it off".
   If the  pain prove  the gripping of the guts,  and long after
delivery.  Then take the  root of great comfrey, one dram ;
Rutmegand peach kernals, of each two fcruples,  and give
them to the woman  as fhe is  laid  down,  in  two or  three
fpoonfuls of white wine; but if ftie be feverifh, then  let
it be in as much warm broth. 
 
                      r   97  i ■*


       The  Family  Phyfician  :             \

 Being Choice and approved Remedies for feveral Diftempers in-      jj
               cident to human Bodies, cifV.-                    1

                     For Apoplexy.                          I
      TAKE man's Ikull prepared, powder of the roots of      I
       male-peony, of each one ounce and a half ; contra-
»ycrva, baftard  dittanny,  angellica,  zedoary,  of each two
 drams ; mix and make a powder, whereof you may uke
 half a dram, or a dram.
     71 A Powder for the epilipfy  er falling ft.'nefs.
   Take of oppoponax,crude antimony,dragon's bleed, editor
 penny feeds, of each an equal quantity ; make a fubtile pow-
K6er. The dofe from  half a dram  in black cherry water. Be-
 fore you take  it, thett»mach  muft be cleanfed vtth feme
 proper vomit,.as that of Myfinft's emetick tartar, from four
 grains to fix. If'for children, falts of vitriol, from a fcruple
 to half a dram.
            A vomit for fwimming in the head.
   Take  cream of tartar  halfoa fcruple,  caltor two crsins  ;
 JXlJy »11 tvgvtlicr-fcr o ronvitj  W-ka tiAn 4tJour. O clock IH
 the  afternoon.   At night going to bed, it will be very pro-
 per to take a dofe of apoftolic powder.
            Fer an Head Ach of long ft an ding.
   Take the juice of powder, or diftilled  water of hog lice,
 and continue the ufe of it.
                  For  Spitting of Blocd.
   Take  conferve  of comfrey, and of hipps,  of each  one
 ounce and a half; conferve of red rofes three  ounces; dra-
 gons blood a dram ;  fpecies of hyacinths two fcruples; red
 coral a dram ;  mix,  and with fyrup of red poppies  ma";e a
 foft eleftuary.   Take the quantity of a walnut night  and
 morning.
                A powder againft vomiting.
   Take  crabs eye?,  red coral,  ivory, of each two drams
 burnt hartlhorn one dram,  cinnamon and red launders, of
 each half a dram, make a full fubtile powder,  and take half
 a dram. 
98
The family Phyfician.
                     For a loofenefs.
   Take of Venice treacle,  and diafcordium, of etch half •
dram in warm ale, water gruel, or what you beft like, laft
at night going to bed.
                   For the bloody flux.
   Firft take a dram of the powder of rhubarb in a fufficient
quantity of conferve of red rofes,  early in the morning;
then  at  night take of  tortified or  roaftcd rhubarb half a
dram, diafcordium a dram and a half,  liquid laudanum cy-
doniated a fcruple , mix and make  a bolus.
               For iiflamation in the lungs.               t
   Take curious  water ten ounces,  water of red poppies
three ounces, fyrup of poppies an ounce, pearl  prepared a
dram, make a julep, and take fix fpoonfuls every fourth hour.
            Pills very profitable in  an afthma.
   Tnke gum ammoniac and bedellium, diflblved in vine-
gar of fquills of each half an ounce, powder of the leave*
of edge, muftard, and  favoury,  of each half a dram, flower
of fulphur, three drams, and with fufficient quantity of fy-
rup of fulphur  make a mafs of fmall pills; three  whereof
take every evening.
               An  elecluary fbr the dropfy.
   Take choice rhubarb one  dram,   gum  lac prepared two
dramS ; zyl^alo^o, clnn.mon, longbi i tW ttoi I, vf v.aih )yg}f
an ounce the beft Englifh faffron,  half a fcruple,  with fy-
rup of chychory and rhubarb make an eleftuary.  Take the
quantity of a nutmeg,  or a fmall walnut every  morning
falling.
                For weaknefs in women.
   After a  gentle purge or two,  take the following decofti-
on viz. A quarter of a pound of lignum vitse,  faflafras two
ounces, ral fins of the fun eight ounces, liquirifh fliced two
ounces;  boil all in  fix quarts of water to a gallon; ftrain
and keep it for ufe. Take half a pint at four o'clock in the
afternoon ; the third laft at night going to bed.
               A clyfier propir in pleurify.
   Take clean French barley a handful t leaves of malloVrs,
mercury,  violet, of each a handful  and a  half;  twelve da-
maflc prunes ; boil all in a fufficient quantity of water to a
pint and a half, when {trained, add one ounce and a half of
frefh caffia and red fugar, with the   yolk of an  egg.   Thw
may be injected  every other day. 
Obftrvarions on the human Body,           99
                An ointment for the fame.
  Take the oil of violets, fweet almonds, ;of each an ounce,
with whey and a little faffron make  an ointment; warm it,
and bath with it the part afftfted.
                An ointment for the itch.
  Take fulphur vive in powder half an ounce, oil of tartar
per dilinquium a'fufficient quantity, ointment of rofes four
ounces make a liniment;  to which add  a Icruple of the oil
of rhodium to aromatife it, and rub the part affefted with it.
                   For  a running fcab.
  Take two pounds of tar, incorporate  into a thick mafs
with good fifted  afhes, boil the maf3 in fountain water, ad-
dingleaves of groundivy, white hore^hbund, fumitory, roots
of lharp pointed  dock,  and of elecampane, of each four
handfuls ;  make a bath to be ufed, with care of taking cold.
                  For worms in children.
   Take worm fred half a dram,  flower of fulphur a dram,
 fal prunelly half a dram,  mix and make  a  powder.  Give
 as much as will  lye on a filver 3 pence night or  morning in
 treacle or 'honey.   Or for people grown up, you  may add
 b fufficient quantity of aloe rofatum, and fo make them up
 into pills, three or four thereof may be taken every morning.
                 For the Gripes in children.
   Give a drop or two of the oil of annifeeds, in a fpoonful
 of panada, milk or what elfe you think fit.



 Of the judgment of Phyfiognomy,  taken from all parts of the
                       human Body.
       HE whofe hai.r is partly curled, and partly hanging down
        is commonly a wife man or a  fool,  or el.e as very a
  knave as he is a fool.  He whofe hair groweth  thick on his
  temples and his brow,  is by nature,  fimplc, vain, luxuri-
 '©us, luftful, credulous,  clownifh in his fpeech  and conver-
  fation.  He whofe  hair is of a   reddifh complexion,  is for
  ibe moft part  proud, deceitful,  detracting,  venerous, and
  full of envy.   He whofe hair is very  fair, is for the mot
  part a man fit for all  praife-worthy aftions, a lover of ho-
  nours, and more inclined to good than evil, careful to  per-
  form  whatsoever  is committed to his care, fecret in carrv-
                           Iz 
ioo          Obfervations on the human Body.

ing on any bufinefs, and  fortunate.   Hair  of  a  yellowifli
colour, {hews a man to be good and willing to do any thing,
fearful, bafh.ul,  weak of body, but  ftrong in  the abilities
of the mind, and more  apt  to remember than to revenge
an injury.   He whofe hair turns grey or  hoary, in the time
of his youth, is generally given to women, vain,  f#Jfe, un-
liable, and talkative— Note, That whatfoeverfignification
the hair has in men, it is the fame in women alfo.
   He whofe forehead rifeth in  around,  fignifies  a man li-
beral,  of a  g>od  underftanding,  inclined  to  virtue.  He
whofe  forehead is very  low and little, is of a good under-
ftinding, magnanimous but extremely bold and confident,
and a pretender to  \6ve  and  honour.  He% whofe forehead
feetns fharp and pointed up in the corners of his temples, is
a man  naturally vain, fickle and weak in intelleftuals.  He
whofe  brow is full  of wrinkles, and hath as  it  were a com-
ing down  in the middle of his forehead, is one of a great
fpirit,  a great  wit, void of deceit, and yet of hard fortune.
He whofe forehead »* long and  high, and jutting forth,  is
honeft, but weak and fimple, and of an hard fortune,
  Thofe eye brows that are  much arched whether in man
or woman, and which by a frequent motion elevate them*
felves, fhew the  perfon to  be  proud,  high  fpirited, vain,
glorious, a lover of beauty, and indifferently inclined to ei-
ther good or evil.  Ifo- whofe eye:brows,are thick, and have
but litte hair  upon them,  is weak in his intelleftuals,  and
too credulous.
   Great and full eyes, cicher in man or woman,  fhew the
perf»n to be for the moft part flothful,  bold, envi .u«, a b«d
concealer  of fecrets, miferable, vain, given to -lying,  and
yet of a bad memory,  flaw of invention, weak of his in-
telleftuals, and yet very much conceited'ef that little  wif-
dom he thinks himfelf mafter of.   He whofe eyes are hal-
low in his head,  and therefepre difcerns well at a  great dif
tance, is one that is fufpicious, proud, and treacherous.-7
But he whofe eyes are as it were flaring out of  his head, is
a fimple foolilh perLn.  He who looks ftudioufly and acutely
with his eyes and  eyelids downwards,  it denotes him to
be malicious, impious towards God, and  falie lo • ards men.
Thofi whofe eyes  are often twinkling,  and which mcc
batkw-jrd ar.d lo. \ard, (hews the perf.n to be luxurious *nd
•nl&hbful.  If a  p-:-Ln has  any giccn.di n.ii<ide.j with 
Obfervations on the human Body.           101
the white of their eyes,  they, are often filly, falfe and vain.
Thofe whofe eyes are addifted to blood (hot, are naturally.
choleric,  perfidious without flume,  much inclined  to fu-
perltition.  They who have eyes like oxen,  are perfons of
good nutriment,  but of a weak inemory,  and of a dull un-
derlianding.  But thtfe whofeeyes are neither too.little nor
too big, and inclining  to black,  do fignify  a  man  mild,
peaceable, honeft, witty, and of a good underftanding, and
one  that  when  need requires  will, be  fervicsable to (hi»-
friend.
   A long and thin npfe, denotes a man  bold,  curious  and
vain, weak and credulous.   A long nofe,  the  tip binding
.down,  fhews the perfen to be wife and difcreet.. .A bottle
nofe denotes a man to.be impetuous in obtaining his defires.
He whd hath a long and large nofe, is an admirer of the fair
fex, and  ueS accomplifhed  for  the wars  of Venus, but
ignorant  of any thing elfe.   A nofe  very round at the end
of it,, having but little noftrils, fhews the perfon to be  very
munificent  and, libera', true to his  truft, but  very proud,
credulous and vain.   He whofe nofe is more red  th*n any
Other part of  hs face,  is thereby denoted to be covettus.
A thick nofe with wide noftiils, denotes a man dull of ap-
prehenfion, fimple and  a liar.
   When the noft ils are clofe and thin,  they denote, a man
to have but little tefticles and to be  very defirou.s of-the en-
joyment  of women,  but modefiin  his  converfatior*.   _£ut
he whofe noftrils are great and wide, b ufualiy well Hung
andluftful; but  withal of an envious bold  and treacherous
difpOfition, and though dull of underftanding, yet confident
,enough.
   A gre it and wide mouth fhews a man  tobe bold, warlike,
fin melt fs and ftoiit.-'a great liar, and as great a talker and
carrier of news, and alfo a great eater ; but as for his in-
telleftuals, they are very dull.
   The  lips when they are very big and  blabbering, (heW a
perfon  to be credulous, foolifh,  dull and ftupid, and apt to
be enticed to any thing.
   When  the teeth  are  fmall, and but weak in  performing
their office, and  efi ecially if they are (hort and few, though
they (hew the party- to be of a wed; conftitution,  yet  they
denote  hi n to be of  an extraordinary  underftrinding, and 
I oz           Obfervations tn the human Body.

not only fo,  butalroof a meek di{pofition,  honed, faithful
and fecret in whatever they are trufted with.
  A tongue too fwift in  fpeech fhews  a man  to be very  *
foolifh and vain.   A ftimering tongue fignifies a weak  un-
derftanding, and  of a wavering  mind.   A very thick and
rough  tongue, denotes a man to be apprehenfive, full  of  ^
compliments, yet treacherous and prone  to impiety.
  A faint voice, attended with little breath, fhews a perfon  *
to be of good underllanding, but timorous.                  '<
  A thick full chin, abounding with  peice, honeft and true
to his truft.   A piqked chin,  fhews  one  to be of a lofty
fpirit.
  Young  mens beards ufualiy begin to grow on their chins1
at fifteen years of age, and fooner;  thefe  hairs proceed from
the  fuperfluity of heat,  the  fumes whereof afcend  to the
chin and, cheeks, like fmoak  to the funnel   cf'a chimney ;
there are few women that  have hair on their chins, and the
 reafon is thofe humours which caufe hair to grow on mens
cheeks, are  by women evacuated in their monthly courfer.
   Great thick ears are certain figns of a foolifh  perfon, of a
bad memory-, and worfe underllanding.  But fmall and thin
ears Ihews a perfon to  be of good  wit and  underllanding,.  '
grave, fecret, thrifty, modeft, of a good memory and willing
to oblige.
   A face apt to  fweat on  every occafion, fhews the perfon   t
 to be of a hot conftitution,  vain  and luxurious, of a good
 ftomach,  but of a bad underllanding, and worfe conven-
tion. A lean face,  fhews a man to be both  bold in fpeech
and  aftion,  bat withal foolifh and  deceitful.
   A face every way of due proportion, denotes  an ingenious
per'' n, one fit for any thing,  and  much  inclined to what i«
good. 
             Obfervat'.tns on the human Body.          103



          General Obfervations  worthy of Note.

      WHEN you find a red man to be a faithful, a tali man
        to be wife; a fat man  to be fwift  on foot;  a  lean
man to be a fool,  a handfome man to  be  proud ; a pool
man not to be envious;  a knave to be no liar ; an upright
man not too bold  and hearty  to his own  lofs; one  that
drawls when he fpeaks, not to be crafty  and  circumventing;
one that winks on another with his eyes, not to be falfe and
deceitful; a failor and a hangman to be  pitiful, a poor man
to build  churches;  a  quack  doftor to have a good confei-
ence ; a bailiff not to  be a mercilefs villain; an  hoftefj not
to over-reckon you : and an  ulerer to be charitable. Then,
fay you have found a prodigy, and men acting contrary to
the common courfe of their  nature.
F  I   N   IS. 
 
 
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Aristotle, Aristotle's masterpiece completed: in two parts...,
WZ 270 A718m 1788
Condition when received:  The cloth-cased book was in poor
condition. The pages were dark tan, acidic and brittle. Sewing was
loose. The front fly page was detaching from the cover at the
gutter. Page 23-24 were detached.  Pages 8-9, 26-27, 28-29, 34-35,
74-45 were loose.
Conservation treatment:  Only minimal treatment was carried out
at this time.  Loose and detached pages were secured with
kizukishi paper (Japanese Paper Place) using wheat starch paste
(zin shofu. Talas) along the inner gutter.
Conservation carried out by Rachel-Ray Cleveland
NLM Paper Conservator 09 / 2006 
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