THE
Experienced Midwife:
ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY
FOR
Surgeons, Midwives, Nurses, and child-
bearing Women.	
A NEW EDITION.	
PHILADELPHIA.
Printed for the BOOKSELLERS.
1799. G



THE
EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
PART I.
A GUIDE FOR CHILD-BEARING WOMEN.
Introduction.
I HAVE given this book the title of The Complete and Experi-
enced Midwife, both because it is chiefly designed for those that
profess midwifery, and contains whatever is necessary for them to
know in the practice thereof, and also because it is the result of many
years experience, and that in the most difficult cases, and is therefore
the more to be depended upon. A midwife is the most necessary &
honorable office, being indeed a helper of nature; which therefore
makes it necessary for her to be well acquainted with all the opera-
tions of nature in the work of generation, and instruments with which
she works; for the that knows not the operations of nature, nor with
what tools she works, she must needs be at a loss how to assist therein.
And seeing the instruments of operation both in men and women are
those things by which mankind is produced, it is very necessary that
all midwives should be well acquainted with them, that they may the
better understand their business, and assist nature as there shall be oc-
casion. The first thing then necessary, as introductory to this treatise
is, an Anatomical Decryption of the several parts of generation
both in men and women; and having designed throughout to com-
prehend much in a little room, I  shall avoid all unnecessary and
impertinent matters with which book of this nature are for the most
part too much clogged, and which are more curious than needful.
And though I should be necessitate to speak plainly, that so I may
be understood, yet I shall do it with that modesty that none shall
have need to blush, unless it be from something in themselves, rather
than from what they shall find here, having the motto of the royal
garter for my defence, which is, "Honi foit qui maly pense" or,
Evil to him that evil thinks.
CHAP. I.
An Anatomical Description of the instruments of Generation in
Man and Woman.
SECTION I. Of the parts of Generation in Man.
AS the generation of mankind is procured by the coition of both
sexes, it necessarily fallows that the instruments of generation
are of two sorts, to wit, male and female; the operation of which are


4 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
by action and passion, and herein the agent is the seed, and the pa-
tient blood; whence we may easily collect, that the body of man be-
ing generated by action and passion, he must needs be subject there-
unto during his life. Now since the instruments of generation are
make and female, it will be necessary to treat of them both distinctly,
that the discreet midwife may be well acquainted with their several
parts, and their various operations, as they contribute to the work
of generation. And in doing this, I shall give the honor of prece-
dence to my own sex, and speak first of the parts of generation in
man, which shall be comprehended under six particulars, viz. The
preparing vessels, the seminal vessels, and the yard, of each of which 
in their order.
1 The first are the vasa preparentia, or preparing vessels, which
are in number soon, two veins, and as many arteries; and they are
called preparing vessels from their office, which is to prepare that
matter or substance which the stones turn into seed to fit it for the
work. Whence you may note, that the liver is the original blood,
and distributes it through the body by the veins, and not the heart, as
some have taught. As to the original of these veins, the right vein
proceedeth from the emulgent vein, which is one of the two main
branches of the hollow vein passing to the reins. As to the arteries
they both arise from the great artery, which the Greeks call that
which is the great trunk and original of all the arteries. But I
will not trouble you with Greek derivations of words, affecting
more to teach you the knowledge of things than words.
2 The next thing to be spoken of is the corpus varicosum, and this
is an interweaving of the veins and arteries which carry the vital and
natural blood to the stones to make seed if. These, though at their
first descension they keep at small distance he one from the other,
yet before the enter the stones they make an admirable intermix-
ture of twisting the one from the other, so that sometimes the veins
go into the arteries, and sometimes the arteries into the veins; the
substance of which is very hard and long, not much unlike a pyra-
mid in form without and sensible hollowness: The use is to make
one body of the blood and vital spirits, which they both mix and 
change the colour of, from red to white, so that the stones may both
have a fit matter to work upon, and do their work more easily, for
which reason, the interweaving reacheth down to the very stones, and
pierceth in their substance.
3. The stones are the third thing to be spoken of, called also
testicles; in Latin, testes, that is, witnesses, because they witness one


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 5
to be a man. As to these I need not tell you their number, nor wher
nature has placed them, for that is obvious to the eye. Their substance
is soft, white and spungy, full of small veins and arteries, which is the
reason they swell to such a bigness upon the flowing down of the hu-
mour in them. Their form is oval, but most authors are of opinion
that their bigness is not equal, but that the right is the biggest, the hot-
test, and breeds the best and strongest seed. Each of these stones hath
a muscle, called cremaster, which signifies to hold up, because they pull
up the stones in the act of coition, that so the vessels being slackened
may the better void the seed. These muscles are weakened both by
age and sickness; and the stones then hang down lower than in youth
and health. These stones are of great use, for they convert the blood
and vital spirits into seed for the procreation of man: but this must
not be understood as if they converted all the blood that comes into
them into seed, for they keep some for their own nourishment. But
besides this, they add strength and courage to the body; which is
evident from this, that eunuchs are never so hot, strong not valiant,
as other men, noris an ox so hot or valiant as a bull.
4. The next in order are the vasa deferentia, which are the ves-
sels that carry the seed from the stones to the minimal vessels which
is kept there till its expulsion. These are in number two, in colour
white, and in substance nervous or sinewy; and from a certain hol-
lowness which they have in them are also called spermatic pores,
they rise not far from the preparing vessels; and when they come in-
to the cavity of the belly they turn back again and pass into the
backside of the bladder, between it and the right gut; and when
they come near the neck of the bladder they are joined to the semi-
nal galls, which somewhat resembles the cells of an honey comb;
which cells contains an oily substance, for they draw the fatty sub-
stance from the seed which they empty into the urial passage, which
is done for the most part in the act of copulation, that so the thin
internal skin of the yard suffer not through the acrimony or sharpness
of the seed. And when the vasa deferentia, has passed as before
declared, they fall into the glandula postrata which are the vessels
ordained to keep the seed, and which are next to be spoken of.
5. The seminal vessels, called glandulum seminale, are certain
kernels placed between the neck of the bladder, and the right gut
compassing about the vasa deferentia, the urethra, or common pas-
sage for seed and urine, passing through the midst of it, and may pro-
perly enough be called the conduit of the yard. At the mouth of
the urethra, where it meets with the vasa deferentia, there is a thick
skin, whose office is to hinder the seminal vessels, which are of
spongy nature, from shedding their seed against their will; the skin
G2 


6 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
is very full of pores, and through the heat of the act of copulation
the pores open, and so give passage to the seed, which being of a ve-
ry subtile spirit, and especially being moved will pass thro' the ca-
runcle or skin as quicksilver through leather; and yet the pores of
this skin are not discernable unless in the anotomy of a man, who.
had some violent running in the reins when he died, and then they
are conspicuous, thole vessels being the proper seat of that disease.
6. The last of the parts of generation in man to be spoken of, is
the yard, which has a principal share in the work of generation; and
is called Penis, from its hanging without the belly; and it consists
of skin, tendons, reins, arteries, sinews and great ligaments, and is
long and round, being ordained by nature both for the passage of
the urine, and for the conveyance of seed into the matrix. It hath
some parts common with it to the rest of the body, as the skin, or
the Membrana Carnosa and some parts it has peculiar to itself, as
the two nervous bodies, the Septum, the Urethra, the Glans, the
four muscles, and the vessels. The skin, which the Latins called
Cutis, is full of pores, through which the sweat and fuliginous or
sooty black vapours of the third concoction (which concocts the
blood into flesh) pass out ; these pores are very many and thick but
hardly visible to the eye ; and when the yard stands not, it is flaggy;
but when it stands, it is stiff: The skin is very sensible, because
the nerves concur to make up its being ; for the brain gives sense to 
the body by the nerves. As to the Carnus Membrana, or fleshy
skin, it is so called, not because its body is fleshy skin, but because
it lies between the flesh, and passeth into other parts of the body
underneath the fat, and sticks close to the muscles: but in the
yard there is no fat at all, only a few superficial veins and arteries
pass between the former skin and this, which when the yard stands
are visible to the eye; These are the parts common both to the
yard and the rest of the body. I will now speak of those parts of
the yard which are peculiar to itself, and to no other part of the 
body: and those are likewise six, as has been already said, of which
it will also necessary to speak particularly. And 
1. Of the Nervous bodies: These are two, tho' joined together,
and are hard, long and sinewy, they are spongy within and full of
black blood; the spongy substance of the inward part of it seems to
be woven together like a net, consisting of innumerable twigs of
veins and arteries. The black blood contained therein is very full
of spirits, the delights or desire of Venus, add heat to these,
which causeth the yard to stand; and that is the reason that both
venereal sight and tales will do it. Nor need it be strange to any,
that Venus, being a planet cold and moist, should add heat to those
parts, since by night, as the Psalmist testifies, Psal. cxxi. 6. Now


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 7
this hollow, spungy intermixture or weaving was so ordered by na-
ture, on purpose to contain the spirit of venereal heat, that the yard
may not fall before it has done its work. These two side ligaments
of the yard, where they are thick and round, arise from the lower
part of the share-bone, and at the beginning are separated the one
from the other, resembling a pair of horns, or the letter Y. where the
Urethra, or common passage of urine and seed, passeth between them.
2. Those nervous bodies of which I have spoken, so soon as they
come to the joining of the share-bone, are joined by the Sceptum
Lucium, which is the second internal part, to be described, which in
substance is white and nervous, or sinewy, and its use is to uphold
the two side ligaments and the Urethra.
3. The third thing in the internal part of the yard is the Urethra,
which is the passage or channel by which both the seed and urine is
conveyed out thro' the yard. The substance of it is sinewy, thick,
soft and loose as the side ligaments are; it begins at the neck of the
bladder, and, being joined to it, passeth to the glans, It has in the
beginning of it three holes, of which the largest of them is in the
midst, which receives the urine into it, the other two are smaller,
by which if receives the seed from each seminal vessel.
4. The yard has four muscles: on each side two: These muscles
are instruments of voluntary motion, without which no part of the
body can move itself. It consists of fibrous flesh to make its body,
of nerves for its sense, of veins for its nourishment, of arteries for
its vital heat, of a membrane or skin to knit it together, and to dis-
tinguishing one muscle from another, and all of them from the flesh;
Of these muscles, as I said before, the yard has two of each side,
and the use of them is to erect the yard, and make it stand, and
therefore they are also called Erectors: But here you must note
that of the two on each side the one is shorter and thicker than the
other; and these are they that do erect the yard, and so are called
Erectors: but the two other being longer and smaller, their office
is to dilate the lower part of Urethra, both for making water and
emitting the seed; upon which account they are called Accelerators.
5. That which is called the Glans is the extreme part of the yard,
which is very soft, and of a most exquisite feeling, by reason of the
thinness of the skin wherewith it is covered: this is covered with
the Præputium, or fore-skin, which in some men covers the top of
the yard quite dose, but in others it doth not; which skin moving
up and down in the act of copulation, brings pleasure both to man
and woman: this outer skin is that which the Jews were command-
ed to cut off on the eighth day: this Præputium, or fore-skin, is
tied to the glans by a ligament or bridle, which is called Franum.
6. The last internal part of the yard are the vessels thereof, veins, 


8 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
nerves and arteries. Of these some pass by the skin, and are visible
to the eye when the yard stands; others pass by the inward part of
the yaad; the arteries are wonderfully dispersed thro' the body of
the yard, much exceeding the dispersion of the veins; for the right
artery is dispersed to the left side, and the left to the right side. It
hath two nerves, the lesser whereof is bestowed upon the skin, the
greater upon the muscles and body of the yard. But thus much 
shall suffice to be said in describing the parts of generation in men:
and shall, therefore, in the next place, proceed to describe those of
women, that so the industrious midwife may know how to help them 
in their extremities.
SEC. II. Describing the Parts of Generation in Women.
WHATEVER ignorant persons may imagine, or some good women
think, they are unwilling those private parts which nature has
given them, should be exposed, yet it is in this case absolutely neces-
sary; for I do positively affirm, that is it impossible truly to appre-
hend what a midwife ought to do, if these parts are not perfectly
understood by them, nor do I know any reason they have to be asham-
ed to see or hear a particular description of what God and nature
hath given them, since it is not the having these parts, but the un-
lawful use of them that causes shame.
To proceed then, in this description more regularly, I shall speak
in order of these following principal parts; 1st. Of the Privy Pas-
sage; 2dly. Of the Womb: 3dly: Of the Testacles, or Stones:
4thly. Of the Spermatic Vessels.
1st. Of the Privy Passage. Under this head I shall consider the
six following parts.
1. The lips, which are viable to the eye, and are designed by na-
ture as a cover to the Fissura Magna, or great orifice: These are
framed of the body, and have pretty store of spungy fat: and their
use is to keep the internal parts from cold and dull. These are the
only things that are obvious to the sight; the rest art concealed, and
cannot be seen, unless the two lips are stretchered asunder, and the
entry of the privities opened.
2. When the lips are severed, the next thing that appears is the
Nymphæ or wings; they are formed of soft and spungy flesh, and
are in form and colour like the comb of a cock.
3. In the uppermost part, just above the urinary passage, may be 
observed the Clitoris, which is a sinewy and hard body, full of spungy
and black matter within, like the side ligament of the yard: repre-
senting in form the yard of a man, and suffers erection and falling
as that doth: and it grows hard, and becomes erected as a man's 
yard, in proportion to the desire a woman hath in copulation: and
this also is that which gives a woman delight in copulation; for


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 9
without this a woman hath neither a desire to copulation, and delight
in it, nor can conceive by it. And I have heard that some women
have had their Clitoris so long, that they have abused other women
therewith: Nay, some have gone so far as to say, that those persons
that have been reported to be Hermaphrodites, as having the geni-
tals both of men and women, are only such women in whom the
Clitoris hangs out externally, resembling the form of a yard. But
though I will not be positive in that, yet it is certain, that the lar-
ger the Clitoris is any woman, the more lustful she is.
4. Under the Clitoris, and above the neck, appears the Orifice, or
urinary passage, which is much larger in women than men, and causes
their water to come from them in a great dream. On both side the
urinary passage may be seen two small membraneous appendices, a
little broader above than below, issuing forth of the inward parts of
the great lips, immediately under the Clitoris; the use whereof is to
cover the orifice of the urine, and defend the bladder from the cold
air: So that when a woman pisseth, she contracts herself so, that she
conducts out the urine without suffering it to spread along the privi-
ties, and often without so much as wetting the lips; and therefore
these small membraneous wings are called the Nymphæ, because
they govern the woman's water.l Some women have them so great and
long, that they have been necessitated to cut so much as hat ex-
ceeded and grew without the lips.
5. Near this are four Caruncles, or or fleshy knobs, commonly called
Caruncles Myrtiformes; these are placed, on each side two, and a
small one above, just under the urinary passage, and in virgins are red-
dish, plump and round, but hang flagging when virginity is lost: In
virgins they are joined together by a thin and sinewy skin or mem-
brane, which is called the Hymen, and keeps them in subjection, and
makes them resemble a kind or rose-bud half blown. This disposition
of the Caruncles is the only certain mark of virginity, it being in vain
to search for it else where, or hope to be informed of it any other
way: And 'tis from the pressing and bruising these Caruncles, and forc-
ing and breaking the little membranes (which is done by tie yard in
the first act of copulation) that there happens an effusion of blood;
after which they remain separated, and never recover their first figure,
but become more and more flat as the acts of copulation are increased;
and in those that have children they are almost totally defaced, by
reason of the great distention these parts suffer in the time of their
labour. Their use is to straiten the nect of the womb, to hinder
the cold air from incommoding it, and likewise to increase mutual
pleasure in the act of coition: for the Caruncles being then extremely
swelled, and filled with blood and spirits, they close with more plea-
sure upon the yard of the man, whereby the woman is much more


10 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWlFE.
delighted. What I have said of the effusion of blood which hap-
pens in the first act of copulation, tho' when it happens it is an un-
deubted sign of virginity, shewing the Caruncles Myrtiformes have
never been pressed till then; yet when there happens no blood, it is
not always a sign that virginity is lost before; for the Hymen may
be broken without copulation, by the defluxion of sharp humours,
which sometimes happen to young virgins, because in them it is thin-
nest: It is also done by the unskillful applying of bestaries to provoke
the terms, &c. But these things happen so rarely, that those virgins
do thereby bring themselves under a just suspicion.
6. There is next to be spoken of, the neck of the womb, which is
nothing else but the distance between the privy passage and the month
of the womb, into which the man's yard enters in the act of copula-
tion: and in women of reasonable stature is about eight inches in
length. Tis of a membraneous substance, fleshly without, skinny, and
very much wrinkled within; and that it may both retain the seed
cast into it in the act of copulation, and also that it may dilate and
extend itself to give sufficient passage to the infant at its birth. It is
composed of two membranes, the innermost of them being white, 
nervous and circularly wrinkled much like the palate of an ox, that
so it might either Contract or dilate itself according to the bigness or
length of the man's yard: and to the end, that by the collision, squeez-
ing, or pressing made by the yard is copulation, the pleasure may be
mutually augmented. The external or out most membrane is red and
fleshy like the muscle of the Fundament, surrounding the first, to the
end the yard may be the better closed within it; and it is by means
of this membrane that the neck adheres the  stronger to both the blad-
der and the right guts. The internal membrane in young girls is very
soft and delicate, but in women much addicted to copulation it grows
harder; and in those that are grown aged, if they have been given
much to venery, it is almost become grisly.
Having spoken of the privy passage, I come now to speak of
the womb or matrix, its parts are two; the mouth of the womb,and
the bottom of it. The mouth is an orifice at the entrance into
which may be dilated and shut together like a purse; for though in
the act of copulation it be big enough to receive the glans of the
yard, yet after conception it is so close shut, that it will not admit
the point of a bodkin to enter; and yet again at the time of the wo-
man's delivery, it is opened so extraordinary, that the infant passeth
thro' it into the world; at which time this orifice wholly disappears,
and the womb seems to have but one great cavity from its bottom
to the very entrance of the neck. When a woman is not with child
it is a little oblong, and of a substance very thick and close; but
when she is with child, it is shortened, and its thickness diminisheth 

THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 11
proportionably to its distention: And therefore it is a mistake of
some anatomists to affirm, that its substance waxeth thicker a little
before a woman's labour; for any one's reason will inform them,
that the more distended it is, the thinner must be, and the nearer
a woman is to the time of her delivery, the shorter her womb must
be extened. As to the action by which this inward orifice of the
womb is opened and shut, it is purely natural; for were it other-
wise, there would not be so many bastards gotten as there are; nor
would some married women have so many children were it at their
own choice, but they would hinder conception, though they would
be willing enough to use copulation; for nature has attended that
action with something so pleasing, and delightful, that they are wil-
ling to indulge themselves in the use thereof, notwithstanding the
pains that they afterwards endure, and the hazard of their lives,
which often follow it; And this comes to pass not so much from any
inordinate lust in womea, as for that the Great DIRECTOR of Na-
ture, for the increase and multiplication of mankind, and even for
all other species in the elementary world, hath placed such a mag-
netic virtue in the womb, that it draws the seed to it as the load-
stone draws iron.
The AUTHOR of nature has placed the womb in the belly, that the
head might always be maintained by the warmth of the parts sur-
rounding it; it is therefore seated in the middle of the Hypogastrum
(or the lower part of the belly) between the bladder and the rectum
(or right gut) by which also it is defended from any hurt through the
hardness of the bones; and it is placed in the lower part of the belly
for the convenience of copulation, and of a birth's  being thrust out
at the full time.
It is of figure almost round, inclining somewhat to an oblong, in
part resembling a pear, for, from being broad at the bottom, † gra-
dually terminates in the point of the orifice which is narrow.
The length, breadth and thickness of the womb differ according to
the age and disposition of the body; for, in virgins not ripe it is very
small in all its dimensions, but in women whose terms flow in great
quantities, and such as, frequently use copulation; it is much larger;
and if they have had children, it is larger in them than in such as have
none; but in women of a good stature, and well shaped (it is as I have
said before) from the entry of the privy parts to the bottom of the
womb, usually about eight, but the length of the body of the womb
alone does not exceed three inches, and breadth thereof is nearly
about the same, and of a thickness of the little finger, when the wo-
man is not pregnant; but when the woman is with child, it becomes
of a prodigious greatness, and the nearer she is to her delivery, the
more is the womb extended.


12 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
It is not without reason then that nature (or the God of nature ra-
ther) has made the womb of a membraneous substance; for thereby
it does the easier open to conceive, and is gradually dilated from the
growth of the Fætus or young one, and is afterwards contracted and
closed again, to thrust forth both it and the after-burden, and then to
retire to its primitive seat. Hence also it is enabled to expel any nox-
ious humours which may sometimes happen to be contained in it.
Before I have done with the womb, which is the field of generation,
and ought therefore to be the more particularly taken care of (for as
the seed of plants can produce no fruits, nor spring unless sown in
ground proper to waken and excite their vegetative virtue, so like-
wise the seed of a man, though potentially containing all the parts
of a child, would never produce so admirable an effect, if it were not
cast into the fruitful field of nature, the womb) I shall proceed to
a more particular description of the parts thereof, and the uses to
which nature has designed them.
The womb then is composed of various similary parts, that is, of
membranes, veins, arteries and nerves. Its membranes are two, and
they compose the principal parts of its body; the outmost of which ari-
seth from the Peritoninm, or cawl, and is very thin, without smooth,
but within equal, that it may the better cleave to the womb, as it were
fleshy and thicker than any else we meet within the body when a
woman is not pregnant, and is interwoven with all sorts of fibres or
small strings, that it may the better suffer the extension of the child,
and the waters caused during the pregnancy, and also that it may
the easier close again after delivery.
The veins and arteries proceed both from the Hypogastricks and the
Spermatic Vessels, of which I shall speak by and by; all these are in-
serted and terminated in the proper membrane of the womb. The ar-
teries supply it with blood for its nourishment, which, being brought
thither in too great a quantity, sweats thro' the substance of it, and
distils as it were dew into the bottom of its cavity; from whence do
proceed both the terms in ripe virgins, and the blood which nourish-
ment the embryo in breeding women. The branches which issue
from the Spermatic Vessels, are in each side of the bottom of the
womb, and are much less than those which proceed from the Hypo-
gastricks, those being greater, and bedewing the whole substance of
it. There are yet some other small vessels, which, arising the
one from the other, are conducted to the internal orifice, and by
these, those that are pregnant, do purge away the superfluity of
their terms, when they happen to have more than is used in the
nourishment of the infant; by which means nature has taken such
care of the womb, that, during its pregnancy, it shall not be obliged
to open itself for the passing away those excrementitious humours 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 13
which, should it be forced to do, might often endanger abortion.
As touching the nerves, they proceed from the brain, which furnishes
all the inner parts of the lower belly with them, which is the true
reason it hath so great a sympathy with the stomach, which is like-
wise very considerably furnished from the same part; so that the
womb cannot be afflicted with any pain, but the stomach is immedi-
ately sensible thereof, which is the cause of those loathings or fre-
quent vomitings which happen to it.
But, besides all these parts which compose the womb, it bath four
ligaments, whose office is to keep it firm in its place, and prevent its
constant agitation, by the continual motion of the intestines which
surround it, two of which are above and two below: Those above are
called the broad ligaments, because of their broad and membraneous
figure, and are nothing else but the production of the Peritonæum,
which growing out of the side of the loins towards the reins come to
be inserted in the sides of the bottom of the womb, to hinder the body
from bearing too much on the neck, and so from suffering a precipi-
tation, as will sometimes happen when the ligaments are too much re-
laxed; and do also contain the testicles, and as well conduct the dif-
ferent vessels as the ejaculatories to the womb. The lowermost are
called round ligaments, taking their original from the side of the
womb near the horn, from whence they pass the groin, together with
the production of the Peritotæum which accompanies them through
the rings and holes of the oblique and transverse muscles of the belly,
where they divide themselves into many little branches resembling
the foot of a goose, of which some are inserted into the os pubis, and
the rest are lost and confounded with the membranes that cover the
upper and interior parts of the thigh; and it is that which causes that
numbness which women with child feel in their thighs. These two
ligaments are long, round and nervous, and pretty big in their begin-
ning near the matrix, hollow in their rise, and all along to the os pubis,
where they are a little smaller, and become flat, the better to be in-
serted in the manner aforesaid: it is by their means the womb is hin-
dered from rising too high. Now, although the womb is held in its
natural situation by means of these four ligaments, yet it has liberty
enough to extend itself when pregnant, because they are very loose,
and so easily yield t?its distention. But bedsides these ligaments, which
keep the womb as it were in a poise, yet it is fastened for greater se-
curity, by its neck, both to the bladder and rectum, between which
it is situated. Whence it comes to pass, that if at any time the
womb be inflamed, it communicates the inflammation to the neigh-
bouring parts.
Its use, or proper action in the work of generation, is to receive and 
H


14 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
retain the seed, and to reduce it from powder to action by its heat for
the generation of the infant, and is therefore absolutely necessary for
the conservation of the species. It also seems by accident to receive
and expel the impurities of the whole body, as when women have a-
bundance of whites and to purge away from time to time the super-
fluity of the blood, as it doth every month by the evacuation of blood,
as when a woman is not with child. And thus much shall suffice for
the description of the womb, in which I have been the larger, be-
cause, as I have said before, it is the field of generation.
3d. The next thing to be described in the genitals of women is the
testicles or stones, for such women have as well as men, but are not
for the same use, and indeed are different from those in men in seve-
ral particulars; as 1st, in place being within the belly, whereas, in
men they are without. 2dly, In figure, being uneven in women, but
smooth in men. 3dly, In magnitude, being lesser in women than in men.
4thly, They are not fixed in women by muscles, but by ligatures 5thly,
They have no prostrates or kernals as men have. 6thly, They differ
in form, being depressed or flattish in women, but oval in men. 7thly,
They have but one skin, whereas men have four; for the stones of
men being more exposed, nature has provided for them accordingly.
8thly, Their substance is more soft than in men. And 9thly, Their
temperature is colder than men. And as they differ in all these res-
pects, so do they also in their use, for they perform not the same ac-
tions as men's, as I shall shew presently. As for their seat, it is in
hollowness of the Abdomen, and therefore not extremely pendulous,
but rest upon the ova or egg. 'Tis true Galen and Hypocrates did
erroneously imagine that the stones in women did both contain and
elaborate the seed as those do in men, but it is a great mistake: For
the testicles of a woman are as it were no more than two clusters of
eggs, which lie there to be impregnated by the moist spirimous parti-
cles or animating effluvia conveyed out of the womb through the two
tubes, or different vessels: But however the stones in women are ve-
rv useful; for where they are defective, generation work is at an end.
For though these little bladders, which are on their superfices, con-
tain nothing of seed, yet they contain several eggs (commonly to the
number of twenty in each testicle) one of which being impregnated
in the act of coition, by the most spirituous part of the seed of the
man, descends through the oviducts into the womb, and there in
process of time, becomes a living child.
4th. I am now to speak of the spermatic vessels in women, which
are two, and are fastened in their whole extent by a membraneous
appendix to the broad ligament of the womb: These do not proceed
from the testicles as in men, but are distant from them a finger's
breadth at least; and being disposed after the manner of the miseraic

THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 15 
veins, are trained along the membraneous distance between the dif-
ferent vessels and the testicles. Their substance is, as it were nervous
and moderately hard; they are round, hollow, big, and broad enough
at their end, joining to the horn of the womb. Some authors affirm
that by these, women discharge their seed into the bottom of the
womb; but the whole current of our modern authors run quite ano-
ther way, and are positive that there is no seed at all in their vessels;
but that after the egg or eggs in the ovarie or testicles are impregna-
ted by the seed of the man, they descend through these two vessels
into the womb, where being placed, the embryo is nourished. These
vessels are shorter in women than they are in men; for the stones of
a woman lying within the belly, their passage must needs be shorter;
but their various wreathings and windings in and out, make amends
for the shortness of their passage. These vessels are not united before
they come to the stones, but divide themselves into two branches,
the largest whereof only passes through the testicles, the lesser to
the womb, both for the nourishment of itself and the infant in it.
I further observe, That these spermatic veins receives the arteries
as they pass by the womb, and so there is a mixture between natu-
ral and vital blood, that so the work might be the better wrought,
and that it is so, appears by this. That if you blow up the sperma-
tic vein, you may perceive the right and left vessel of the womb,
blown up: from whence also the communication of all the vessels
of the womb may be easily perceived.
The deferentia or carrying vessels spring from the lower part of
the testicles, and are in colour white, and in substance sinewy, and
pass not the womb straight, but wreathed with several turnings and
windings, as was said of the spermatic vessels, that so the shortness
of the way may be likewise recompensed by their winding meanders;
yet near the womb they become broad again. They proceed in two
parts from the womb, which resemble horns, and are therefore call-
ed the horns of the womb. And this is all that is needful to be known
or treated of concerning the parts of generation both in men and
women.
Only since our modern anatomists and physicians are of different
sentiments from the ancients, touching the woman's contributing of
seed for the formation of the child as well as the man; the ancients
strongly affirming it, but our modern authors being generally of a-
nother judgement; I will here declare the several reasons for their
different opinions, and so pass on.
SECTION III. Of the differences between the modern Physicians,
touching the Woman's contributing Seed to the formation
of the child. 


16 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
I WILL not make myself a party in this controversy, but set down
impartially, yet briefly, the arguments on each side, leaving the
judicious reader to judge for himself.
Though it is apparent, fay the ancients, that the seed of man is the
principal efficient and beginning of action, motion and generation,
yet it is evident that the woman doth afford seed, because she hath
seminal vessels, which else had been given her in vain; but since
nature form nothing in vain, it must be granted they were made
for the use of seed and procreation, and fixed in their proper places
to contribute virtue and efficacy to the seed: and this, say they, is
farther proved from hence. That if women at years of maturity use
not copulation to object their seed, they often fall into strange diseases,
and it is apparent, that women are never better pleased than when
they are often satisfied this way, which argues the pleasure & delight
they take therein; which pleasure, say they, is double in women to
that it is in men; for, as the delight of men in copulation consist
chiefly in the emission of the seed, so women are delighted both in
emission of their own, and the reception of the man's.
But against all this, our modern authors affirm, That the ancients
were very erroneous; for as much as the testicles in women do not
afford seed, but are two eggs, like those of fowls and other creatures,
neither have they any such offices as men, but indeed are an Ovari-
um, or recepticle for eggs, wherein these eggs are nourished by the
sanguinary vessels dispersed through them; and from thence, one or
more as they are fœcundated by the man's seed, are conveyed into
the womb by the oviducts. And the truth of this, say they, is plain,
that if you boil them their liquor will have the same taste, colour
and consistency, with the taste of bird's eggs. And if it be objected,
that they have no shells, the answer easy; for the eggs of fowls,
while they are in ovary, nay, after they are fallen into the uterus,
have no shell; and though they have one when they are laid, yet
it is no more than a fence which nature has provided for them against
outward injuries, they being hatched without the body; but those
of women being hatched within the body, have no need of any o-
ther fence than the womb to secure them.
They also further say, there are in the generation of the fœtus, or
young ones, two principles, active & passive: the active is the man's
seed, elaborated in the testicles, out of the arterial blood and animal
spirits; the passive principle is the ovum or egg impregnated by the
man's seed; for to say that women have true seed (say they) is erro-
neous. But the manner of conception is this: The most spirituous
part of man's seed, in the act of copulation, reaching up to the ova-
times or testicles of the woman (which contains divers eggs, some-
time more, sometimes fewer) impregnates of them, which being


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 17
conveyed by the oviducts to the bottom of the womb, presently
begins to swell bigger and bigger, and drinks in the moisture that is
sent thither, after the same manner that the seeds in the ground suck
the fertile moisture thereof to, make them sprout.
But, notwithstanding what is here urged by our modern anatomists,
there are some late writers of the opinion of the ancients, viz. that
women have both, and emit seed in the act of copulation; and the
good women themselves take it ill to be thought merely passive in
those wars wherein they make such vigorous encounters, and posi-
tively affirm they are sensible the emission of their seed in those en-
gagements, and that a great part of the delight they take in that act
consists in it. I will not therefore go about to take any of their happi-
piness away from them, but leave them in profession of their imagi-
ned felicity.
Having thus laid the foundation of this work, in the description I
have given of the parts dedicated to the work of generation both in
man and woman, I will now proceed to speak of conception, and of
those things that are necessary to be observed by women from the
time of their conception to the time of their delivery.
CHAP. III
Of Conception; what it is; the Signs thereof, whether con
ceived of a Male or Female; how Women are to order them-
selves after conception:
SECTION I. What Conception is, and the Qualifications requi-
site thereto.
CONCEPTION is nothing else but an action of the womb, by
which the prolific seed is received and retained, that an infant
may be engendered and formed out of it. There are two sorts of con-
ception; the one according to nature, which is followed by the ge-
neration of the infant in the womb; the other is false, and wholly
against nature, in which the seed changes into water, and produces
only false conception, moles or ether strange matter. Now there
are three things principally necessary in order to a true conception,
so that generation may follow; to wit, diversity of sex, conception,
and emission of seed. Without diversity of sexes, there can be no
conception: For, tho' some will have a woman to be an animal
that can engender of herself, it is a great mistake; there can be no
conception without a man to discharge his seed into her womb.
What they alledge of pullets laying eggs without a cock's treading
them, is nothing to the purpose; for those eggs, should they be set
under a hen, will never become chickens, because they never re-
ceived any prolific virtue from the male; which is absolutely neces-
sary to this purpose, and is sufficient to convince us that diversity of
sex is necessary even to those animals, as well as to the generation 
H 2


18 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
of man. But diversity of sex, tho' it be necessary to conception,
yet it will not do alone; there must also be a congression of those
different sexes: for diversify of sex would profit little, if copulation
did not follow. I confess I have heard of some subtle women, who,
to cover their sin and shame, have endeavored to persuade some
persons that they were never touched by men, to get them with
child; and that one in particular pretended to conceive, by going into
a bath where a man had washed himself a little before, and spent his
seed into it, which was drawn and fucked into her womb, as she pre-
tended: But such stories as those are only fit to amuse them that
know no better—Now that these different sexes should be obliged
to come to the touch, which we call copulation or coition, besides
the natural desire of begetting their like, which stirs up men and
women to it, the parts appointed for generation are endowed by na-
ture with a delightful and mutual itch, which begets in them desire
to the action; without which it would not be very easy for a man
born for the contemplation of divine mysteries, to join himself by
the way of coition to a woman, in regard of the uncleanness of the
part, and of the action; and on the other side, if women did but
think of those pains and inconveniences to which they are subject
by their great bellies, and those hazards even of life itself, besides
the unavoidable pains that attend their delivery, it is reasonable to
believe they would be affrighted from it. But neither sex make
these reflections, till after the action is over, considering nothing
before hand but the pleasure of enjoyment. So that it is from this
voluptuous itch that nature obligeth both sexes to this congression.
Upon which the third thing followeth of course, to wit, the emis-
sion of seed into the womb in the act of copulation. For the woman
having received this prolific seed into her womb, and retained it
there, the womb thereupon becomes compressed, and embraces the
seed so closely, that being closed, the point of a needle, as saith
Hippocrates, cannot enter into it without violence; and now the
woman may be said to have conceives; the several faculties which
are in the seed it contains, being reduced by its heat from power
into action; making use of the spirits with which the seed abounds,
and which are the instruments by which it begins to trace out the
first lineaments of all the parts; to which afterwards, of making
use of the menstruous blood flowing to it, it gives in time growth
and final perfection. And thus much shall suffice to shew what
conception is. I shall now proceed to shew
SECTION II. The Signs if Conception.
THERE are many prognostics or signs, of conception: I will
name some of the chief, which are the most certain, and let
alone the rest. 

THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 19
1. If a woman has been more than ordinary desirous of copula-
tion, and hath taken more pleasure than usual therein (which upon
recollection she may easily know) it is a sign of conception.
2. If she retain the seed in her womb after copulation, which she
may know if she perceives it not to flow down from the womb as it
used to do before, for that is a sure sign the womb has received it
into the inward orifice, and there retains it.
3. If she finds a coldness and chillness after copulation, it shews
the heat is retired to make conception.
4. If after this she begins to have loathings to those things which
she loved before, and this attended with a loss of appetite, and a de-
sire after meats, to which she was not affected before, and hath often
nauseatings and vomitings, with four belchings, and exceeding weak-
ness of stomach.
5. After conception the belly waxeth very flat, because the womb
closeth itself together, to nourish and cherish the seed, contracting
itself so as to leave no empty space.
6. If the veins of the breast are more clearly seen than they were
wont to be, it is a sign of conception.
7. So it is, if the tops on the nipples look redder than formerly,
and the breasts begin to swell, and grow harder than usual, especi-
ally if this be attended with pain and soreness.
8. If a woman hath twisting and griping pains, much like those-
of the cramp in the belly, and about the navel, it is a sign she has
conceived.
9. If under the lower eye-lid the veins be swelled, and appear
clearly, and the eye be some thing discouloured, it is a certain sign
she is with child, unless she have her menses at the same time upon her,
or that she has fat up the night before. This sign has never failed.
10. Some also make this trial of conception: they stop the wo-
man's urine in a glass or phial for three days, and then strain it
through a fine linen cloth, and if they find small living creaturos
in it, they conclude that the woman has certainly conceived.
11. There also is another easy trial: let the woman that suppo-
ses she has conceived, take a green nettle, and put it into her urine,
cover it close, and let it remain therein a whole night: if the wo-
man be with child, it will be full of red spots on the morrow; but
if she be not with child, it will be blackish.
11. The last sign I shall mention is that which is most obvious to
every woman, which is the suppression of the terms: For, after
conception, nature makes use of that blood for the nourishment
of the embryo, which before was cast out by nature, because it was
too great in quantity. For it is an error to think that the menstrual
blood, simply in itself considered, is bad; because if a woman's bo- 

20 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
dv be in good temper, the blood must needs be good: and that it is
voided monthly is because it offends in quantity, but not in quality.
But tho' the suppression of the terms is generally a sure sign of
conception to such persons as have had them orderly before, yet is
not then having them always a sign there is no conception: Forasmuch
as many that have been with child have had their terms, and some
even until the fifth or sixth month, which happens according to the
woman's being more or less sanguine; for if a woman has more blood
than will suffice for the nourishment of the embryo, nature contin-
ues to void it in the usual way. Whence the experienced mid-
wife may learn there are few general rules which do not sometimes
admit of an exception. But this shall suffice to be spoken of the
signs and prognosticks of conception.
SECTION III. Whether Conception be of a Male or Female.
AUTHORS give us several prognostics of this: though they
are not all to be trusted, yet there is some truth among them; the
signs of a male child conceived are.
1. When a woman at her rising up is more apt to stay herself up-
on her right hand than her left.
2. Her belly lies rounder, and higher than when she has conceived
of a female.
3. She first feels the child to beat on the right side.
4. She carries her burden more light, and with less pain than
when it is a female.
5. Her right nipple is redder than the left, and her right breast
harder and more plump.
6. Her colour is more clear, nor is she so swarthy as when she
has conceived a female.
7. Observe a circle under her eye, which is a pale and bluish
colour; and if that under her right eye be most apparent, and most
discoloured, she hath conceived a son.
8. If she would know whether she hath conceived a son or a
daughter, let her milk a drop of her milk into a bason of fair water;
if it spreads and swims at top, it certainly is a boy; but if it is round
as it drops in, and sinks to the bottom, it is a girl. This Last is an
infallible rule. And in all it is  to be noted, that what is a sign of
a male conception, the contrary holds good of a female.
SEC IV. How a woman ought to order herself after conception.
MY design in this treatise being brevity, I shall pretermit all that
others say in the cause of twins; and whether these be any 
such thing as superfœtations, or a second conception in woman,
which is yet common enough, when I come to shew you how the
midwife ought to proceed in the delivery of these women which are
pregnant with them. But having already spoken of conception, I 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 21
think it now necessary to show how such as have conceived ought to
order themselves during their pregnancy, that they may avoid those
inconveniencies which often endanger the life of the child, and ma-
ny times their own.
A woman after her conception, during the time of her being with
child, ought to be looked on as indisposed or sick, tho' in good
health; for child bearing is a kind of nine-months sickness, being all
that time in expectation of many inconveniencies, which such a con-
dition usually causes to those who are not well governed during that
time; and therefore ought to resemble a good pilot, who, when fail-
ing in a rough sea and full of rocks, avoids and shuns the danger,
if he steers with prudence; but if not, it is a thousand to one, but he
suffers shipwreck. In like manner, a woman with child is often in
danger of miscarrying and losing her life, if she is not very careful
of herself, and secondly of the child she goes with, for otherwise a
single error may produce a double mischief; for if she receives any
prejudice her child also suffers with her.
Let a woman therefore after conception, observe a good diet, sui-
table to her temperament, custom, condition and quality; and if she
can, let the air where she ordinarily dwells be clear and well tem-
pered free from extremes either of heat or cold; for being too hot,
it dissipateth the spirits too much, and causeth many weaknesses,
and by being too cold and foggy, it may bring down rheums and dis-
tillations on the lungs, and so cause her to cough, which by its im-
petuous motions forcing downwards, may make her miscarry; She
ought also to avoid all nauseous and ill smells, for sometimes the
stink of a candle not well put out may cause her to come before her
time; and I have known the smell of charcoal to have the same
effect. Let her also avoid smelling of rue, mint, pennyroyal, cas-
tor, brimstone, &c.
But with respect to her diet, women with child have generally
so great loathings, and so many different longings, that it is very
difficult to prescribe an exact diet for them. Only this I think ad-
viseable, that they may use of those meats and drinks which are to
them most desirable, tho' perhaps not in themselves so wholesome
as some others, and it may not be so pleasant; but this liberty must
he made use of with this caution, that what she desires be not in
itself absolutely unwholesome; and also and also that in every thing they
take care of excess. But if a child-bearing woman finds herself not
troubled with such longings as we have spoken of, and in such quan-
tity as may in a great measure regulate; for it is alike hurtful for her to
fast too long as to eat too much, and therefore rather let her eat a
little and often, especially let her avoid eating too much at night;


22 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
because the stomach being too much filled, compresseth the dia-
phragm, and thereby causes difficulty of breathing. Let her meat
be easy of concoction, such as the tenderest parts of beef, mutton,
veal, fowls, pullets, capons, pidgeons and partridges, either boiled of
roasted, as she likes best; new laid eggs are also very good for her;
and let her put into her broths those herbs which purify it, as sorrel,
lettuce, succory and burrage; for they will purge and purify the
blood; let her avoid whatsoever is hot seasoned, especially pies
and baked meats, which being of hot digestion, overcharge the
stomach. If she desires fish, let it be fresh, and such as is taken out
of rivers and running streams. Let her eat quinces, or marmalade
to strengthen the child; for which purpose sweet almonds, honey,
sweet apples, and full ripe grapes, are also good. Let her abstain from
all sharp, sour, bitter, and salt things and all thing that tend to pro-
voke the terms, such as garlick, onions, olives, mustard, fennel,
with pepper, and all spices, except cinnamon, which in the last
three months is good for her. If at first her diet be sparing as she
increases in bigness let her diet be increased for she ought to con-
sider she has a child as well as herself to nourish. Let her be mod-
erate in her drinking; and if she drinks wine, let it be rather claret
than white (which will breed good blood, help, the digestion, and
comfort the stomach, which is always but weakly during her preg-
nancy) but white wine being diuretic, or that which provokes urine
ought to be avoided. Let her have a care of too much exercise,
and let her avoid dancing, riding in a coach, or whatever else puts
the body into violent motion, especially in her first month. But to
be more particular I shall here set down rules proper for every
month for the child-bearing woman to order herself, from the time
she has first conceived to the time of her delivery.
Rules for the first two months.
AS soon as a woman knows or has reason to believe she hath
conceived, she ought to abstain from all violent motion or ex-
ercise, whether in walking, riding on horseback, or in a coach. Let
her also abstain from venery, to which after conception, she has
usually no great inclination, lest there be a mole or superfætation;
which is the adding of one embryo to the other. Let her beware she
lift not her arms too high, nor carry great burdens, nor repose her-
self on hard and uneasy seats. Let her use moderately meats of
good juice and easy concoction, and let wine be neither too strong
nor too sharp, but a little mingled with water; or, if she be very
abstemious, she may use water wherein cinnaman is boiled. Let
her avoid fastings, thirst, watching, mourning, sadness, anger and all
other perturbations of the mind. Let none present any strange or
unwholesome things to her, not so such as name it, lest she should 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 23 
desire it, and not be able to get it, and so either cause her to miscar-
ry, or the child have some deformity on that account. Keep her
belly loose with prunes, raisins, or manna, in her broth; and let her
use the following electuary to strengthen the womb and the child.
" Take conserve of burrage, bugloss, and red roses, two ounces
each; balm, citron peel, and  maribolans, candied, each an ounce;
extract of wood aloes a scruple: pearl prepared half a dram; red
carol, ivory each a dram; precious stones each a scruple; candied
nutmegs two drams; and with syrup of apples and quinces make an
electuary.
Let her use the following rules.
" Take pearls prepared a dram; red carol prepared with ivory
each half a dram, precious stones, each a scruple; yellow citron
peels, mace, cinnamon, cloves, each half a dram, saffron a scruple,
wood aloes half a scruple; ambergrease six drams, and with six
ounces of sugar dissolved in rose water, make rouls." Let her also
apply strengtheners to the naval, of nut megs, mace, mastic, made up
in bags, or a toast dipped in mamsey, sprinkled in powder of mint.
If she happens to desire clay, chalk or coal (as many women with
child do) give her beans boiled with sugar: and if she long for any
thing which she cannot obtain, let her presently drink a large draught
of pure cold water.
Rules for the third month.
In this month and the next, be sure to keep from bleeding; for
though it may be safe at other times, it will not be so until the end of
the fourth month; and yet if too much blood abound, or some in
cident disease happen, which requires evacuation, you may use a cup-
ping glass, with scarification, and a little blood may be drawn from
the shoulders and arms, especially if she has been accustomed to bleed.
Let her also take care of lacing herself too straightly, but give her-
self more liberty than she used to do; for inclosing her belly in too
straight a mould, she hinders the infant from taking its free growth,
and often makes it come before its time.
Rules for the fourth month.
In this month you ought also to keep the child-bearing woman
from bleeding, unless in extraordinary cases; but when this month
is past, blood-letting and physic may be permitted, if it be gentle
and mild; and perhaps it may be necessary to prevent abortion. In
this month she may purge in acute diseases; but purging may be
only used from the beginning of this month to the end of the sixth:
but let her take care that in purging she uses no vehement medi
cine, not very bitter, as aloes, which is an enemy to the child, and
opens the mouth of the vessels; neither let her use coloquintida,
scammonv, nor turbith; she may use cassia, manna, rhubarb, agaric,


24 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
and senna, but diacidonium purgans is bed with a little of the elec-
tuary of the juice of roses.
Rules for the fifth, sixth, and seventh months.
In those months child-bearing women are often troubled with
coughs, heart beating, fainting, watching, pains in the loins and hips,
and bleeding. The cough is from a sharp vapour that comes to the
jaws and rough artery from the terms, or from the thin part of that
blood gotten into the veins of the breast, or fallen from the head to
the breast: This endangers abortion, and strength fails from watch-
ing; therefore purge the humours that fall from the breast with rhu-
barb and agaric, and strengthen the head as in a catarrh, and give
sweet lenitives as in a cough. Palpitation and fainting arise from
a vapour that go to it by the arteries or from blood that aboundeth
and cannot get out at the womb, but ascends and oppresses the heart;
and, in this case, cordials should be used both inwardly and out-
wardly. Watching is from sharp dry vapours that trouble the ani-
mal spirits; in this case use frictions, and let the woman wash her
feet at bed time, and let her take syrup of poppies, dried roses, emul-
sions of sweet almonds and white poppy seeds. If the be troubled
with pains in her loins and hips, as in these months she is subject to
be from the weight of her child, who is now grown big and heavy,
and so stretcheth the ligaments of the womb, and parts adjacent, let
her hold it up with swathing bands about her neck. About this time
also the woman often happens to have a flux of blood, either at the
nose, womb, or hemorrhoids, from plenty of blood, or from the
weakness of the child that takes it not in, or else from evil humours
in the blood, that stirs up nature to send it forth. And sometimes it
happens that the vessels of the womb may be broken, either by some
violent motion, fall, cough or trouble of mind; (for any of these will
work that effect) and this is so dangerous, that in such a case the
child cannot be well; but if it be from blood only, the danger is
no less, provided it flows by the veins of the neck of the womb, for
then it prevents plethory, and takes away the nourishment of the
child; but if it proceeds from the weakness of the child that draws
it not; abortion of the child often follows, or hard travail, or else
she goes beyond her time: But if it flows by the inward veins of her
womb, there is more danger by the openness of the womb, if it comes
from evil blood; the danger by is alike from cacochimy, which is like
to fall upon both. If it arises from plethory, open a vein, but with
very great caution, and give her astringents, such as the following;
" Take pearl prepared a scruple; red coral two scruples, mace, nut-
megs, each a dram; cinnamon, half a dram; make a powder, or
with sugar, rouls." Or, give this powder in broth: " Take red co-
ral a dram; precious stones half a scruple: red sanders half a dram; 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 25
sealed earth, and tormentil roots, each two scruples, with sugar of
roses, and manus Christi, with pearl five drams, make a powder."—
You may also strengthen the child at the navel; and if there be a
cacochimy, alter the humours, and evacuate, if you may do it safe-
ly. You may likewise use amulets on her hands, and about her neck.
In a flux of hemorrhoids, let her drink hot wine with a toasted nut-
meg. In these months the belly is also subject to be bound; but if
it be without any apparent disease, the broth of a chicken, or of veal
sodden with oil, or with the decoction of mallows, mercury, and
lintseed put up in a clyster, will not be amiss, but in less quantity
than is given in other cases; to wit, of the decoction five ounces, of
common oil three ounces, of sago, two ounces, of cassia fistula one
ounce. But if she will not take a clyster,one or two yokls of new
laid eggs; or a few pease pottage warm, with a little salt and sugar,
supped up a little before meat, will be very convenient: But if her
belly shall be distended, and stretched out with wind, a little fennel
seed and anniseed reduced into powder, and mingled with honey
and sugar, made after the manner of an electuary, will do very well.
Also, if the thighs and feet swell, let them be anointed with ex-
phrodium (which is a liquid medicine made with vinegar and rose
water) mingled with a little salt.
Rules for the Eighth Month.
The eighth is commonly the most dangerous, and therefore the
greatest care and caution ought to be used; and her diet ought to be
better in quality, but not more, nor indeed so much in quantity as
before; but as she must abate her diet, so she must increase her ex-
ercise: And because then women with child, by reason of the sharp
humours, alter the bellv, are accustomed to weaken their spirits and
strength, they may well take before meat an electuary of diarrho-
don or aromaticum rosatum, or diamargarton; and as they will loath
and nauseate their meat they may take green ginger condited with
sugar, or the rinds of citrons and oranges condited; and often use
honey for the strengthening of the infant. When she is not far from
her labour, let her use every day seven roasted figs, before meat and
sometimes lick a little honey; but let her beware of salt, and pow-
der meat, for it is neither good for her nor the child.
Rules for the Ninth Month.
In the ninth month let her have a rare of lifting any great weight;
but let her move a little more to dilate the parts, and stir up natural
heat. Let her take heed of stooping, and neither sit too much nor
lie on her sides; neither ought she to bend herself much, lest the
child be unfelded in the umbilical ligament, by which means it of-
ten perishes. Let her walk and stir often, and let her exercise be 
I


26 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
rather to go upwards than downwards: Let her diet now especially
be light and easy of digestion; as damask prunes with sugar, or figs 
and raisins, before her meat; as also the yolk of eggs, flesh and
broth of chickens, birds, patridges, and pheasants; astringent and
roasted meats, with rice, and hard eggs, millet, and such like other
things are proper; baths of weet water, with emollient herbs, ought
to be used by her this month without intermission. And after the
bath, let her belly be anointed with the oil of roses and violets; but 
for her privy parts, it is fitter to anoint them with the fat of hens,
geese, or ducks, or with oil of lilies, and the decoction of lintseed
and fenugreek, boiled with oil of lintseed and marsh mallows, or
with the following liniment.
" Take of mallows and marsh mallows, cut and shred, of each an
ounce; of lintseed one ounce; let them be boiled from twenty ounces
of water to ten; then let her take three ounces of the boiled broth:
of oil of almonds, and oil of flour-de-luce, of each one ounce; of
deer's suet three ounces; let her bathe with this, and anoint her-
self with it warm."
It for fourteen days before the birth she do every morning and e-
vening baths and moisten her belly with mascudine and lavender
water, the child will be much strengthened thereby. And if every
day she eat toasted bread, it will hinder any thing from growing to
the child. Her privy pits may be a so gently streaked down with
this fomentation.
" Take three ounces of lintseed; of mallows and marsh mallows
sliced, of each one handful; let them be put into a bag, and boiled
immediately: and let the woman with child every morning and e-
vening take the vapour of this decoction in a hollow stool, taking great
heed that no wind or air come to her in any part, and then let her
wipe the part so anointed with a linen cloth, that she may anoint
the belly and groins as at first. When she is come so near her time
as to be within ten or fourteen days thereof, if she begins to feel a- 
ny more than ordinary pain, let her use every day the following :
" Take mallows, and marshmallows, of each one handful: camo-
mile, herd mercury, maiden hair, cf each half a handful: of lintseed
four ounces; let them be boiled in such a sufficient quantity of wa-
ter as may make a broth therewith." But let her not sit too hot up-
on the seat, nor higher than a little above her navel; nor let her
sit on it longer than about half an hour, left her strength languish and
decay, for it is better to use it often, than to stay too long in it.—
And thus I have shewn how a child bearing woman ought to govern
herselt in each month during her pregnancy. How she must order
herself at her delivery, shall be shewn in another chapter, after I
have first shewn the industrious Midwife how the child is formed in 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 27
the womb, and the manner of its pecumbiture there.
CHAP. I.
Of the Parts proper to a Child in the Womb; bow it is formed
there, and the Manner of its Situation there.
IN the last chapter I shewed what conception was, how accomplish-
ed, its signs, and how she who hath conceived ought to order her-
self during the time of her pregnancy. Now, before I speak of her
delivery, it is necessary that the midwife be first acquainted with the
parts proper to a child in the womb, and also how it its formed, and
the manner of its situation and decumbiture there; without the
knowledge of which, no one can tell how to deliver a woman as she
ought. This therefore shall be the work of this chapter. I shall
begin with the first of these.
SECTION I. Of the parts proper to a Child in the Womb.
IN this section I must first tell you what I mean by the parts pro-
per to a child in the womb, and they are only those that either
help or nourish it, whilst it is lodged in that dark repository of na-
ture, and that help to clothe and defend it there, and are cast away
as of no more use, after it is born, and these are two, viz. the um-
bilicum, or navel vessels, and the fecundium: by the first is nou-
rished, and by the second clothed and offended from wrong. Of
each of these I shall speak distinction, and, first,
Of the Umbilicum or Navel Vessels.
These are four in number, viz. one vein, two arteries, and the
vessel which is called urachos: 1. The vein is that by which the
infant is nourished, from the time of its conception, to the time of
its delivery; till being brought into the light of this world, it has
the same way of concocting its food that we have. This vein ari-
seth from the liver of the chill, and is divided into two when
it hath passed the navel; and these two are again divided and subdi-
vided, the branches being upheld by the skin called chorion (of
which I shall speak by and by) are joined to the veins of the mo-
ther's womb, from thence they have their blood for the nourishment
of the child. 2. The arteries are two on each side, which proceed
from the back branches of the great artery of the mother; and the
vital blood is carried by these to the child, being ready concocted
by the mother. 3. A nervous or sinewy production is led from the
bottom of the bladder of the infant to the navel, and this is called
urachos; and its use is to convey the urine of the infant from the
alantois. Anatomists do very much vary in their opinions concern-
ing this; some denying any such thing to be in the delivery of
women, and others affirming it: but experience testifies there is
such a thing: For Bartholomew Cabrolius, the ordinary doctor of
anatomy to the college of physicians at Montpelier in France, re-


28 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
cords the history of a maid, whose water being a long time stopped,
at last issued out thro' her navel. And Johannes Fernelius speaks
of the same thing that happend to a man of thirty years of age, who
having a stoppage in the neck of the bladder, his urine issued out of
his navel many months, together, without any prejudice at all to
his health, which he ascribes to the ill lying of his navel whereby
the urachos was not well dried. And Volchier Coitas quotes such
another instance in a maid of thirty-four years, at Nuremberg in
Germany. These instances, though they happen but seldom, are
sufficient to prove that there is such a thing as an urachos in men.
These four vessels before mentioned, viz. one vein, two arteries, and
the urachos, do join to the navel, and are united by a skin which
they have from the chorion, and so become like a gut or rope, and
are altogether void of sense; and this is that which the good women
call the navel string. These vessels are joined together, that so they
may neither be broken, severed, nor entangled: and, when the in-
fant is born, are of no use, save only to make up the ligament,
which stops the whole of the navel and some other physical use, &c.
Of the Secundine, or After-Birth.
Setting aside the name given to this day by the Greeks and La-
tins, it is called in English by the name of Secundine, After-birth,
and After-burden, which are held to be four in number.
1. The first; is called Placenta, because it resembles the form of a
cake, and is knit both to the navel and chorion, and make up the
greatest part of the secundine or after-birth. The flesh of it is like
that of the milt, or spleen, soft, red, and tending something to black-
ness, and hath many small veins and arteries in it; and certainly the
chief use of it is for containing the child in the womb.
2. The second is the chorion. This skin, and that called the Am-
nios, involve the child round, birth above and underneath, and on both
sides, which the Alantois doth not: This skin is that which is most
commonly called the secundine, as it is thick and white, garnished
with many small veins and arteries, ending in the Placenta before
named, being very light and slippery. Its use is not only to cover
the child round about, but also to receive and safely bind up the roots
and the veins and arteries, or naval vessels before described.
3. The third thing which makes up the secundine, is the Alantois,
of which there is a great dispute among anatomists; some saying
there is such a thing, and others that there is not: Those that will
have it to be a membrane, say, it is white, soft, and exceeding thin,
and just under the Placenta, where it is knit to the Urachos, from
whence it receives the urine; and its office is to keep it separate
from the sweat, that the falseness of it may not offend the tender
skin of the child. 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 29
4. The fourth and last covering of the child is called Amnois, and
it is white, soft, and rransparent, being nourished by some very small
veins and arteries. Its use is not only to enwrap the child round,
but also to retain the sweat of the child.
Having thus described the parts proper for a child in the womb, I
will next proceed to speak of the formation of the child therein, as
soon as I have explained the hard terms in this section, that those for
whose help this is designed, may understand what they read. There
is none so ignorant as not to know that a vein is that which receives
blood from the liver, and distributes it in several branches to all parts
of the body. Arteries proceed from the heart, are in continual mo-
tion, and by that motion quicken the body. Nerve is the same,
with sinew, and is that by which the brain adds sense and motion to
the body. Placenta properly signifies a sugar-cake; but in this sec-
tion it is used to signify a spungy piece of flesh, resembling a cake,
full of veins and arteries, and is made to receive the mother's blood,
appointed for the infant's nourishment in the womb. Chorion is the
outward skin which compasseth the child in the womb. The Am-
nois is the inner skin which compasseth the child in the womb. The
Alantois is the skin that holds the urine of the child during the time
that it abides in the womb. The Urachos is the vessel which
conveys the urine from the child in the womb to the Alantois. I
now proceed to.
SECTION I. Of the Formation of the Child in the Womb. 
TO speak of the Formation of the child in the womb, we must
begin where nature begins; and that is, at the act of coition,
in which the womb having received the genetative seed, without
which there can be no conception, the womb immediately shuts up
itself so close that not the point of a needle can enter the inward
orifice; and this it does partly to hinder the issuing out of the seed
again, and partly to cherish it by an inbred heat, the better to pro-
voke it to action; which is one reason why women's bellies are so
lank at their first conception. The woman hiving thus conceived,
the first thing which is operative in the conception, is the spirit,
whereof the seed is full, which, nature, quickening by the heat of
the womb, stirs it up to action. This seed consists of very different
parts, of which some are more, and some are less pure. The inter-
nal spirits therefore separateth those parts that are less pure, which
are thick, cold, and clammy, from them that are pure and noble.
The less pure are cast to the outsides, and with them the seed is cir-
cled round, and of them the membranes are made, in which that
feed which is the most pure is wrapped round, and kept close toge-
ther, that it may be defended from cold and other accidents, and
operate the better.
I 2


 

30 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
The first that is formed is the amnois, the next the chorion; and
they enwrap the seed round as it were a curtain. Soon after this
for the seed thus shut up in the woman lies not idle) the navel vein
is bred, which pierceth those skins, being yet very tender, and car-
ries a drop of blood from the veins of the mother's womb to the
seed; from which drop is formed the liver, from which liver there
is quickly bred the vena cava, or chief vein, from which all the rest
of the veins that nourish the body spring; and now the seed hath
something to nourish it, whilst it performs the rest of nature's work,
and also blood administered to every part of it to form flesh.
This vein being formed, the navel arteries are soon after formed,
then the great artery, of which all others are but branches, and then
the heart; for the liver furnisheth the arteries with blood to form
the heart, the arteries being made of seed, but the heart and the
flesh of blood. After this the brain is formed, and then the nerves
to give sense and motion to the infant, Afterwards the bones and
flesh are formed, and of the bones, first the vetebræ or chine bones,
and then the skull, &c.
As to the time in which this curious part of nature's workman-
ship is formed, physicians assign four different seasons wherein this
microcosm is formed, and its formation perfected in the womb: The
first is immediately after coition; the second time of forming, say
they, is when the womb, by the force of its own innate power and
virtue, makes a manifest mutation or coagulation in the seed, so that
all the substance thereof seems coagulated flesh and blood, which
happens about the twelfth or fourteenth day after copulation; and
though this concretion of flesh mass abounds with spirits, yet it
remains distinguishable without any form, and may be called a
rough draught of the fœtus or embryo. The third time in which
rough fabrick is come to some further maturity is, when the principal
parts may be in some measure distinguished, and one may discern
the liver, umbellical veins, arteries, nerves, brain and heart: and
this is about eighteen days after conception. The fourth and last
time assigned by physicians for the formation of the child, is about
the thirtieth day after conception for a male; but, for a female,
they tell us forty-two or forty-five days are required, though for
what reason I know not, nor does it appear by the birth; for if the
male receives its formation fifteen days sooner than the female, why
should it not be born so much sooner too? But as to that, every
day's experience shews us the contrary; for women go the full time
of nine months both with male and female. But at this time of
thirty days (or some will have it forty-five) the outward parts may
be also seen exquisitely elaborate, and distinguished by joints; and
from this time the child begins to be animated, though as yet there 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 31
is no sensible motion; and has all the parts of the body, though
small and very tender, yet intirely formed and figured, although
not longer in the whole than one's middle finger: and from thence
forward, the blood flowing every day more and more to the womb,
not by intervals like their courses, but continually, it grows bigger
and stronger to the end of nine menths, being the full time of a wo-
man's ordinary iabour.
Very great have been the disputes among both philosophers and
physicicians about the nourishment of the child in the womb, both
as to what it is, and which way it receives it. Almæon was of opi-
nion that the infant drew in its nourishment by its whole body, be-
cause it is rare and spungy, as a spunge sucks in water on every side;
and so he thought the infant sucked blood, not only from its mo-
ther's veins, but also from the womb. Democritus held that the
child sucked in the nourishment at its mouth. Hippocrates affirms
that the child sucks in both nourishment and breath by its mouth
from the mother, for which he gives two reasons: 1. That it will
suck as soon as it is born, and there must have learnt to suck before.
2. Because there are excrements found in the guts as soon as it is
born. But neither of these reasons are sufficient to prove his asser-
tion: For, as to the first, " That the child will suck as soon as it is
born," it is from a natural instinct; for take a young cat that never
saw her dam catch a mouse, and yet she will catch mice as soon as
she is able. And as to his second reason, it is a sufficient answer to
say, that the excrements found in the guts of an infant new born,
are not excrements of the first concoction, which is evident, because
they don't stink, but are the thickest part of the blood, which is
conveyed from the vessels of the spleen to the guts. Having there-
fore said enough to confute the opinion of the child's receiving the
nourishment by the mouth, I do affirm that the child receives its
nourishment in the womb by the navel; and, that it should be so,
is much more consonant to truth and reason; which, being granted,
it will easily follow, that the nourishment the child receives is the
pure blood conveyed into the liver by the navel vein, which is a
branch of the vena porta, or great vein, and passes to the small
veins of the liver. Here this blood is made most pure, and the thick-
er and rawer part of it is conveyed to the spleen and kidneys, and
the thick sediment of it to the guts, which is that excrement found
there so soon as they are born. The pure part is conveyed to the
vena cava, and by it distributed throughout the body by the small
veins, which like so many small rivulets, pass to every part of it.
This blood is accompanied (as all blood is) with a certain watery
substance, the better to convey it through the passage it is to run in,
which as in men, is breathed out by sweating, and contained in the
 

32 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
amnios, as I have already said.
SECTION III. Of the Manner of the Child's lying in the Womb.
I COME now to shew after what manner the chill lies in the
womb, a thing so essential for a midwife to know, that she can
be no midwife who is ignorant of it; and yet, even about this au-
thors extremely differ: For there is not two in ten that agree what
is the form the child lies in the womb, or in what fashion it lies
there; and yet this may arise in a great measure from the different
figures that the child is found in, according to the different times of
the woman's pregnancy: For near the time of its deliverance out of
those winding chambers of nature, it oftentimes changes the form
in which it lay before, for another. Hippocrates affirms the child
is so placed in the womb as to have its hands, its knees, and its head
bent down towards its feet, so that it lies round together, its hands
upon both its knees, and its face between them; so that each eye
toucheth each thumb, and its nose betwixt its knees: And Bartho-
linus was also of the same opinion. Columbus describes the posture
of the child thus: " The right arm bowed, the fingers whereof un-
der the ear and above the neck; the head bowed down, so that the
chin toucheth the breast, the left arm bowed above both breast and
face, and the left arm is propped up by the bending of the right el-
bow; the legs are lifted upwards, the right of which is so lifted up  
that the thigh toucheth the belly, the knees the navel, the heel the
left buttock, and the foot is turned back and covereth the secrets;
the left thigh toucheth the belly, and the leg is lifted up to the
breast, the back lying outward. And thus much shall suffice con-
cerning the opinion of authors.
I will row shew the several situations of the child in the womb, ac-
cording to the different times of pregnancy, by which those that are
contrary to nature, and are the causes of all hard labours, will be the
more easily conceived by the understanding midwife: It ought there-
fore, in the first place, to be observed, that the infants, as well male    
as female, are generally situated in the midst of the womb; for
though some times to appearance a woman's belly seems higher on
one side than the other, yet it is so with respect to her belly only,
and not of her womb, in the midst of which it always placed.
But in the second place, a woman's great belly makes different fi-
gures, according to the different times of pregnancy; for when she
is young with child, the embryo is always found of around figure, a little
oblong, having the spine moderately turned inwards, the thighs folded
and a little raised to which the legs are rejoined that the heels touch
the buttocks; the arm are bending, and the hands plated upon the
knees; towards which the head is inclining forwards, so that the chin
toucheth the breast; in which posture it resemble one sitting to 


THE EXPERIENCED WIDWIFE. 33
ease nature and, stooping down with the head to see what comes from
him. The spine of its back is at that time placed towards the mother's
and the head uppermost, the face forwards, and the feet downwards
proportionally to its growth, it extends its members by little and
little, which were exactly folded the first month In this posture it
usually keeps till the seventh or eight months, and then by a natural
propensity and disposition of the upper part of the body, the head is
turned downwards towards the inward orifice of the womb, tumbling
as if it were over its head, so that then the feet are uppermost, and
the face towards the mother's great gut; and this turning of the infant
in this manner, with his head downwards, towards the latter end of a
woman's reckoning is so ordered by nature, that it may thereby be
the better disposed for its passage into the world at the time of its
mother's labour which is then not far off; (and indeed several chil-
dren turn not at all until the very time of birth) for in this posture
all its joints are most easily extended in coning forth ; for by this
means the arms and lags cannot hinder its birth because they cannot
be bended against the inward orifice of the womb; and the rest of
the body: being very supple passeth without any difficulty after the
head, which is hard and big, being past the birth. It is true, there
are divers children that lie in the womb in another posture, and
come to the birth with their feet downwards, especially if there be
twins; for then by their different motions they so disturb one an-
other, that they seldom come both in the same posture at the time
of labour, but one will come with the head, and another with the
feet, or perhaps lie acoss and sometimes one of them will come
right. But however the child may be situated in the womb or to
whatever posture it persents itself at the time of birth if it be not
with its head forwards, as I have before described, it is always, against
nature; and the delivery will occasion the mother more pain and
danger, and require greater care and skill from the midwife than
when the labour is more natural.
CHAP. IV.
A Guide for Women in Travail, shewing what is to be done when
they fall in Labour, in order for their Delivery.
THE end of all that we have been treating of, is the bringing forth
of a child into the world with safety both to the mother and to
the infant. The whole time of a woman's pregnancy may very
well be termed a kind of labour; for, from the time of her concep-
tion to the time of her delivery, she labours under many difficulties,
is subject to meny distemper, and in continual danger, from one
cause or another, till the time of birth comes, and, when that comes,
the greatest labour and travail comes along with it, insomuch, that
then all her other labours are forgotten, and that only is called the


34 THE EXPERIENCED WIDWIFE.
time of her labour; and to deliver her safely is the principal business 
of the midwife. To assist her herein is the chief disign of this chap-
ter. The time of the child's being ready for its birth, when nature
endeavours to cast it forth, is that which is properly the time of a
woman's labour. And, since many women, especially of their first
child, are often mistaken in their reckoning, and so, when they draw
near their time, take every pain they meet with for their labour, 
when it is not so, which often proves prejudicial and troublesome to
them, I will, in the first section of this chapter, set down some signs,
by which a woman may know when the true time of her labour is
come.
SECTION. I. Signs of the true Time of a woman's Labour.
WHEN women with their first child, perceive any extraordi-
ary pains in their belly, they immediately send for their
midwife, taking it for their labour; and then if the midwife be not 
a skilful and judicious woman, she will, without further inquiry,
take it for granted, and so go about to put her into labour before 
nature is prepared for it: which may endanger the life both of mo-
ther and child, by breaking the amnios and chorion. These pains, 
which are often mistaken for labour, are removed by warm clothes 
laid to the belly, and the application of a clyster or two, by which
those pains which precede a true labour are rather furthered than
hindered. There are also other pains incident to women in that 
condition from a flux in the belly, which are easily known by the
frequent stools that fellow them. 
The signs therefore of labour some few days before are, that the
woman's belly, which before lay high, sinks down, and hinders her
from walking so easily as she used to do; also, there flows from the 
womb slimy humours, which nature has appointed to moisten and
smooth the passage, that its inward orifice may be the more easily
dilated when there is occasion; which beginning to open at that
time, suffers that slime to flow away, which proceeds from the glan-
dules called Prostratæ. These are signs preceding labour; but when 
she is presently falling into labour, the signs are great pains about
the region of the reins and loins, which, coming and reiterating by
intervals, answer to the bottom of the belly by congruous throes,
and sometimes the face is red and inflamed, the blood being much 
heated by the endeavours a woman makes to bring forth her child;
and likewise, because during these strong throes her respiration is
intercepted, which causes the blood to have recourse to her face:
also her privy parts are swelled by the infant's head lying in the
birth, which by often thrusting, causes those pains to descend out-
wards. She is much subject to vomiting, which is a sign of good la-
bour and speedy delivery, though by ignorant women thought other-


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 35
wife, for good pains are thereby excited and redoubled; which vom-
iting is occasioned by the sympathy there is between the womb and
the stomach. Also, when the birth is near, women are troubled
with a trembling in the thighs and legs, not with cold, like the be-
ginning of an ague fit, but with the heat of the whole body, tho'
this does not always happen. When the humours which flow from
the womb are discoloured with blood, the midwives call it Shows,
and it is an infallible mark of the birth's being near: and if then the
midwife put up her fingers into the neck of the womb, she will find
the inner orifice dilated: at the opening of which, the membranes
of the infant containing the waters present themselves, and are
strongly forced downwards with each pain she hath; at which time
one may perceive them sometimes to resist, and then again press for-
ward the finger, being more or less hard and extended, according as
the pains are stronger or weaker, These membranes, with the waters
in them, when they are before the head of the child, which the mid-
wives call the Gathering of the Waters, resemble, to the touch of
the finger, those eggs which have no shell, but are covered only with
a single membrane. After this, the pains still redoubling, the mem-
branes are broken by a strong impulsion of the waters, which pre-
sently flow away, and then the head of the infant is presently felt na-
ked, and presents itself at the inward orifice of the womb: when these
waters come thus away, then the midwife may be assured the birth
is very near, this being the most certain sign that can be; for the
Amnios and alantois being broken, which contain those waters, by
pressing forward of the birth; the child is no better able to subsist
long in the womb afterwards, than a naked man in a heap of snow.
Now, these waters, if the child comes presently after them, facili-
tate the labour, by making the passage slippery; and therefore let
no midwife (as some have foolishly done) endeavour to force away the
water, for nature knows best when the true time of the birth is, and
therefore retains the water till that time. But if by accident the wa-
ter breaks away too long before the birth, then such things as will
hastten it, may be safely admitted; and what those are, I shall shew
in another section.
SEC. III. How a Woman ought to be ordered when the time of
her Labour is come.
WHEN it is known that the true time of a woman's labour is
come, by the signs laid down in the foregoing section, of
which those that are most to be relied on are pains and strong throes
in the belly, forcing downwards, towards the womb, and a dilation
of the inward orifice, which may be perceived by touching it with
the finger, and the gathering of the waters before the head of the
child, and thrusting down of the membranes which contain them; 


36 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
through which, between die pains, one may with the finger discover
the part which patents, as said before, especially if it be the head
of the child, by its roundness and hardness. If these things concur,
and are evident, the midwife may be sure it is the time of her La-
bour; and care must be taken to get all things ready that are neces-
sary to comfort the woman in that time. And the better to help
her, be sure to see she be not strait-laced: You may also give her a
pretty strong clyster, or more, if there be occasion, provided it be
done at the beginning, and before the child be too forward. The
benefit accruing hereby will be, to excite the gut to discharge itself
of its excrements, that so the rectum being emptied, there may be
more space for the dilation of the passage; likewise to cause the
pains to bear the more downward, through the endeavours she makes
when she is at stool; and, in the mean time, all other necessary
things for her labaur should be put in order, both for the midwife
and the child. To this end some get a midwife's stool, but a pallet
bed girted is much the best way, placed near the fire, if the season so
require: which pallet ought to be so placed, that there may be easy
access to it on every side, that the woman may be the more readily
assisted, as there is occasion.
If the woman abounds with blood, to bleed her a little may not
be improper, for hereby she will both breathe the better, and have
her breasts more at liberty, and likewise more strength to bear down
the pain; and this she may do without danger, because the child
being about that time ready to be born, has no more need of the
mother's blood for its nourishment: Besides, this evacuation does
many times prevent her having a fever after her delivery. Also, be-
fore her delivery, if her strength will permit, let her walk up and
down her chamber; and that she may have strength so to do, it will
be necessary to give her some good strengthening things, such as jel-
ly broth, new-laid eggs, or some spoonfuls of burnt wine. And let
her, by all means, holdout her pains, bearing them down as much
as she can at the time when they take her; and let the midwife
from time to time touch the inward orifice with the finger, to know
whether the waters are ready to break, and whether the birth will
follow soon after; let her also anoint the woman's privities with
emollient oil, hog's grease, and fresh butter, if she finds they are
hard to be dilated. Let the midwife be all the white near the la-
bouring woman, and diligently observe her gestures, complaints, and
pains, for by this she may guess pretty well how her labour advanc-
eth; because when she changeth her ordinary groans into long cries,
it is a sign the child is very near the birth; for at that time the pains
are greater and more frequent. Let the woman likewise by inter-
vals rest herself on the bed to regain her strength, but not too long, 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 37
especially if she be little, short and thick, for such women have al-
ways worse labour, if they lie long on their beds in their travail
it is better, therefore, that they walk, as much as they can, about
the chamber, the women supporting her under their arms, if it be
necessary; for, by this means, the weight of the child causeth the
inward orifice of the womb to dilate sooner than in bed; and, if
her pains be stronger and more frequent, her labour will not be near
so long.
Let not the labouring woman be concerning at those qualms and
vomitings which perhaps she may find come upon her, for they will
be much for her advantage in the issue, however uneasy she may be
for the time, as they further the throes and pains, provoking down-
wards. But to proceed:
When the waters of the children are ready and gathered, which
may be perceived through the membranes to present themselves to
the inward orifice, of she bigness of the whole dilation, the midwife
ought to let them break of themselves, and not, like some hasty mid-
wives, who being impatient of the woman's long labour, break them,
intending thereby to hasten their business, when instead thereof, they
retard it; for, by the too hasty breaking of these waters (which Na-
ture designed to cause the infant to slide forth the more easily) the
passage remains dry, by which means the pains and throes of the la-
bouring woman are less efficacious to bring forth the infant than they
would otherwise have been. It is therefore much the better way to
let the waters break of themselves: after which the midwife may
with ease feel the child bare by that which first presents, and there-
by discern whether it comes right, that is, with the head foremost, for
that is the most proper and natural way of its birth; if the head
comes right, she will find it round, big, hard, and equal; but if it
be in any other part, she will feel it unequal, rugged, and soft or
hard, according to the nature of the part it is. And this being the
true time when the woman ought to deliver, if nature be not want-
ing to perform its office, therefore when the midwife finds the birth
thus coming forward, let her hasten to assist and deliver it, for it or-
dinarily happens soon after, if it be natural.
But if it happens, as sometimes it may, that the waters break
away too long before the birth, in such a case those things that hasten
nature may be safely admitted; to which purpose, let her make use
of pennyroyal, dittany, juniper berries, red coral, betony, and fever-
few boiled in white wine, and a draught of it drank; or it would be
much better to take the juice of it when it is in its prime, which is in
May, and having clarified it, let them make it into a syrup, with
double its weight of sugar, and keep it by them all the year, to use
K


38 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
when occasion calls for it. Mugwort, used in the same manner, is
also good in this case. Also a dram of cinnamon powder given in-
wardly profits much in this case; and so does tansy bruised and ap-
plied to the privities, or an oil of it so made and used, as you were
taught before. The stone Ætites held to the privities is of extraor-
dinary virtue, and instantly draws away both child and after-burden,
but great care must be taken to remove it presently, or it will draw
forth the womb and all; for such is the magnetic virtue, of this stone,
that both child and woman follow it as readily as iron doth the load-
stone, or as the load-stone the North-star.
There are many other things that physicians affirm are good in
this case; among which are, an ass's or an horse's hoof hung near
the privities; a piece of red coral bung near the said place; a load-
stone helps much, held in the woman's left hand, or the skinwhich
a snake hath cut off, girt about the middle next the skin. These
things are mentioned by Mizaldus; but setting those things aside,
as not certain, notwithstanding Mizaldus quotes them, the follow-
ing prescriptions are very good to give speedy deliverance to women
in travail.
1. A decoction of white wine made in savory, and drank.
2. Take wild tansy, or silver weed, buise it, and apply it to the
woman's nostrils.
3. Take date stones, and beat them to powder, and let her take
half a dram of them in white wine at a time.
4. Take parsley, and bruise it, and press out the juice, and dip a
linen cloth in it, and put it up so dipped into the mouth of the womb,
it will presently cause the child to came away, chough it be dead,
and will bring away the after-burden, Also the juice of parsley is a
thing of so great virtue (especially stone parsley) that being drank
by a woman with child, it cleanseth not only the womb, but also
the child in the womb, of all gross humours.
5. A scruple of castorum in powder, in any convenient liquor, is
very good to be taken in such case; and so also is two or three drops
of spirit of castorum in any convenient liquor: also eight or nine
drops of spirit of myrrh, given in any convenient liquors, gives spee-
dy deliverance.
6. Give a woman in such a case another woman's milk to drink, it
will cause a speedy delivery, and almost without any pain.
7. The juice of leeks, being drank with warm water, hath a migh-
ty operation to cause speedy delivery.
8. Take piony seeds, and beat them into powder, and mix the
powder with oil, with which oil anoint the loins and privities of the
woman with child; it gives her deliverance very speechly, and with
less pain than can be imagined. 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 39
9. Take swallow's nest, and dissolve it in water, strain it, and
drink it warm; it gives delivery with great speed and much ease.
Note, this also is general. That all things that move the terms are
good for making the delivery easy; such as myrrh, white amber in
white wine, or lily water, two scruples or a dram; or cassia lignea,
dittany, each a dram, cinnamon, half a dram, saffron a scruple, give
a dram; or take borax mineral a dram, cassia lignea a scruple, saffron
six grains, and give in sack; or take cassia lignea a dram, dittany,
amber, of each half a dram, cinnamon, borax, of each a dram and a
half, saffron a scruple, and give her half a dram; or give her some
drops of oil of hazel in a convenient liquor; or two or three drops of
oil of cinnamon in vervain water. Some prepare the secundine thus:
Take the navel string and dry it in an oven; take two drams of the
powder, cinnamon a dram, saffron half a scruple, with juice of savin
make troches: give two drams; or wash the secundine in wine, and
bake it in a pot; then wash it in endive water and wine; take
half a dram of it; long pepper, galangal, of each half a dram; plan-
tain and endive-seed, of each a dram and a half; lavender seed
four scruples; make a powder; or take laudanum two drams, ste-
rox, calamine, benzoin, of each half a dram; musk, ambergrease,
each six grains; make a powder; troches for a fume. Or use pes-
saries to provoke the birth; take galbanum, dissolved in vinegar,
an ounce; myrrh two drams; saffron a dram; with oil of orts make
a pessary.
An Ointment for the Navel.
Take of oil of kier two ounces, juice of savin an ounce, of leeks
and mercury, each half an ounce; boil them to the consumption of
the juice; and galbanum dissolved in vinegar half an ounce, myrrh
two drams, slorax liquid a dram; round birthwort, sowbread, cinna-
mon, saffron, a dram; with wax make an ointment and apply it.
If the birth be retarded through the weakness of the mother, re-
fresh her with applying wine and soap to the nose, Confect Alker-
mas, Diamarg.
These things may be applied to help nature in the delivery when
the child comes to the birth the right way, and yet the birth is re-
tarded; but if she finds the child comes the wrong way, and she is
not able to deliver the woman as she ought to be, by helping nature
and saving both mother and child (for it is net enough to lay a wo-
man, if it might be done by another wish more safety and ease, and
less hazard both to woman and child) then let her send speedily for
better and more able help; and not as I once knew a midwife, when
a woman she was to deliver had hard labour, rather than a man-
midwife should be sent for, would undertake to deliver the woman
herself (though told by others that it was a man's business) and in


40 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
her attempting it, brought away the child, but left the head of the
infant behind in the mother's womb; and, had not a man-midwife
been presently sent for, the mother had lost her life as well as the
child; such persons may rather be termed butchers than midwives.
But supposing the woman's labour to be natural, I will next shew
what the midwife ought to do in order to her delivery.
CHAP. V.
Of natural labour; what it is, and what the Midwife is to do in
such a Labour.
SECTION I. What natural Labour is.
THERE are four things to denominate a woman's labour natur-
al; the first is, that it be at the full time; for if a woman comes
before her time it cannot properly be termed natural labour, neither
will it be so easy as if she bad completed her nine mouths. The se-
cond thing is, that it be speedy and without any ill accident; for
when the time of the birth is come, nature is not dilatory in the
bringing of it forth, without some ill accident intervene, which ren-
ders it unnatural. The third is, that the child be alive; for all
will grant, that the being delivered of a dead child is very unnatu-
ral. The fourth thing requisite to a natural birth is, that the child
come right; for if the position of the child in the womb be contra-
ry to what is natural, and the event proves it so too often, making
that which should be a time of life the death both of the mother
and the child.
Having thus told you what I mean by natural labour, I shall next
shew how the midwife is to proceed here, in order to the woman's de-
divery. When all the foregoing requisites concur, and after the wa-
ters are broke of themselves, let the labouring woman be conducted
to a pallet-bed, provided near the fire for that purpose, as has alrea-
dy been said, and let there rather be a quilt laid upon the pallet-bed-
stead than a feather bed, having thereon linen cloths in many folds,
with such other things as are necessary, and may be changed ac-
cording to the exigence requiring it, that so the woman may not be
incommoded with the blood, waters, and other filth which is voided
in labour. The bed ought to be so ordered, that the woman, being
ready to be delivered, should lie on her back upon it, having her bo-
dy in a convenient posture; that is, her head and breast a little rai-
sed, so that she is between lying and sitting, for being so placed, she
is best capable of breathing, and likewise will have more strength
to bear her pains, than if she lay otherwise, or sunk down in her bed.
Being so placed she must spread her thighs abroad, folding her legs
a little towards her buttocks, somewhat raised by a small pillow
underneath, to the end her rump should have no liberty to retire
back; and let her feet be staid against some firm things: Besides


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 41
this, let her take hold of some of the good women attending her
with her hands, that she may the better stay herself during her pains.
She being thus placed near the side of her bed, having her midwife
by, the better to assist upon occasion, let her take courage, and help
her pains the best she can, bearing them down when they take her,
which she must do by holding in her breath, and forcing herself as
much as possible, in like manner as when she goes to stool; for by
such straining, the diaphragma, or midriff, being strongly thrust down-
wards, necessarily forces down the womb, and the childin it. In the
mean time, let the midwife endeavour to comfort her all she can,
exhorting her to bear the labour courageously, telling her it will be
quickly over, and that there is no fear but she will have a speedy
delivery. Let the midwife also, having no rings on her hand, anoint
it with oil or fresh butter, and there with dilate gently the inward
orifice of the womb, putting her finger-ends into the entry thereof,
and then stretch them one from the other, when her pains take her;
by this means endeavouring to help forward the child, and thrust- 
ing, by little and little, the sides of the orifice towards the hinder
part of the child's head, anointing the parts also with fresh butter,
if it be necessary. 
When the head of the infant is somewhat advanced into this in-
ward orifice, the midwife's phrase is, It is crowned, because it girds
and surrounds it just as a crown; but when it is so far that the ex-
tremities begin to appear without the privy parts, then say they,
'The child is in the passage;' and at this time the woman feels her-
self as it were scratched, or prickled with pins, and is ready to ima-
gine that the midwife hurts her, when it is occasioned by the violent
distention of those parts, and the laceration which, at some times,
the bigness of the child's head causeth there. When things are in
this posture, let the midwife seat herself conveniently to receive the
child, which will now come quickly, and with her finger-ends (which
she must be sure to keep close pared) let her endeavour tot thrust the
crowning of the womb (of which I have spoken before) back over the
head of the child. And as soon as it is advanced as far as the ears,
or thereabouts, let her take hold of the two sides with her two hands,
that when a good pain comes she may quickly draw forth the child, 
taking care that the navel string be not then entangled about the
neck, or any other part, as sometimes it is, lest thereby the after-
burden be pulled with violence, and perhaps the womb also, to
which it is fastened, and so either cause her to stood, or else break
the string, both which are of bad consequence to the woman, whose 
delivery may thereby be rendered the more difficult. It must also
be carefully heeded that the head be not drawn cut straight, bus-
K 


42 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
shaking it a little from the one side to the other, that the shoulders
may sooner and easier take their place immediately after it be past,
without loosing any time, left the head being past, the child be stopt
there by the largeness of the shoulder, and so come in danger of
being suffocated and strangled in the passage, as it sometimes hap-
pens for the want of care therein. But as soon as the head is born,
it there be need, she may slide in her fingers under the arm pit,
and the rest of the body will follow without difficulty.
As soon as the midwife hath in this manner drawn forth the child,
let her put it on one side, left the blood and water which follow
immediately, should do it an injury, by running into its mouth and
note, as it would do if it lay on its back and so endanger the choak-
ing it. The child being thus born, the next thing requisite is to
bring away the after-burden; but before that, let the midwife be
very careful to examine whether there be more children in the
womb; for sometimes a woman may have twins that expected it
not; which the midwife may easily know by the continuance of the
pains after the child is born, and the bigness of the mother's belly.
But the midwife may be more sure of it if she puts her hand up the
entry of the womb, and finds there another water gathering, and a
child in it presenting to the passage; and if she finds so, she must
have a care of going about to fetch away the after birth, till the wo-
man be delivered of all the children she is pregnant with. Where-
fore the first string must be cut, being first tied with a thread three
or four times doubled and the other end fastened with a string to the
woman's thigh, to prevent the inconvenience it may cause by hang-
ing between her thighs; and then removing the child already born,
she must take care to deliver her of the rest, whether more or less,
observing all the same circumstances as the first; after which it will
be necessary to fetch away the after-birth or births. But of that
in another section; after first shewing what is to be done to the
new born infant.
SECTION II. Of the cutting off the Child's Navel string.
THOUGH this is by many accounted but a trifle, yet great-
care is to, be taken about it; and shews none of the least art
and skill of a midwife to do it as it should be: In doing this the
midwife ought to observe, 1. The time; 2. The place; 3. The
manner; 4. The event.
The time is, as soon as ever the infant comes out of the womb,
whether it brings part of the after-birth with it or not; for some-
times the child brings into the world a piece of the amnois upon its
heap, and is what the good woman calls the caul, and ignorantly
attributes some extraordinary virtue to the child that is so born;
but this opinion is only the effect of their ignorance; for when such


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 43
a child is born (as some call it) upon its brows it generally betokens
weakness, and denotes a short life. But to the matter in hand. As
soon as the child is come into the world, consider whether it be weak
or strong: and if it be weak, let the midwife gently put back part of
the vital and natural blood into the body of the child by its navel;
for that recruits a weak child; but if the child be strong, the opera-
tion is needless. Only let me advise you that many children that
are born seemingly dead, may be soon brought to life again if you
squeeze six or seven drops of blood out of that part of the navel
string; which is cut off, find give it to the child inwardly.
Authors can scarce agree whether the navel string should be cut
long or short; some prescribing, it to be cut off at four finger's
breadth, which is at best but an uncertain rule, unless all fingers
were of one size. It is a received opinion that the parts adapted to
generation are either contracted or dilated according to the cutting
of the navel string; and therefore midwives generally leave a long-
er part of it to a male than to a female, because they would have
the mates well provided for the encounters of Venus; and the rea-
son they give why they cut that of the females shorter, is, because
they believe it makes them modest, and their privities narrower,
which makes them more acceptable to their husbands. Mizaldus
was not of this opinion, and therefore he ordered the navel string to
be cut long both in male and female children; because, said he, the
instrument of generation follows the proportion of it, and therefore
if it be cut too short in a female, it will be a hinderance to her hav-
ing children. I will not contradict these opinions of Mizaldus, that
experience has made good. The one is, that if the navel string of a
child, after it is cut, be suffered to touch the ground, the child will
never hold its water, neither sleeping or waking, but will be subject 
to an involuntary making of water all its life time. The other is,
that a piece of the child's navel string carried about one, so that
it touch his skin, defends him that, wears from the falling sickness
and convulsion.
As to the manner how it must be cut: Let the midwife take a
brown thread four or five time double, of an all long, or thereabouts,
tied with a single knot at each of the ends, to prevent their entang-
ng; and with this thread so accommodated (which the midwife
must have in readiness before the woman's labour, as also a good
pair of scissors, that so no time may be lost) let her tie the string
within an inch of the belly with a double knot, & turning about the
ends of the thread let her tie two more on the other side of the string
reiterating it again, if it be necessary; then let her cut of the navel
another inch below the ligature, towards the after-birth, so that
there only remains two inches of the string, in the midst of which


44 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
will be the knot we speak of, which must be so strait knit as not to
suffer a drop of blood to squeeze out of the vessels; but care must
be taken not to knit it so strait as to cut it in two, and therefore the
thread must be pretty thick, and pretty strait knit, it being better
too strait than too loose; for some children have miserably lost their
lives, with all their blood, before it was discovered, because the na-
vel string was not well tied. Therefore great care must be taken
that no blood squeeze through, for if there does, a new knot must be
made with the rest of the string. You need not fear to bind the
navel string very hard, because they are void of sense, and that part
of it which you leave on falls off of its own accord, in a very few
days, sometimes six or seven, and sometimes sooner; but rarely tar-
ries longer than the eight or ninth. When you have thus cut the
navel string, then take care the piece that falls off touch not the
ground, for the reason I told you Mizaldus gave, which experience
has justified.
As to the last thing I mentioned, which is the event or conse-
quence, of what follows cutting of the navel string: As soon as the
navel string is cut off, apply a little cotton or lint to the place to
keep it warm, lest the cold enter into the body of the child, which
it will most certainly do if you have not bound it close enough. If
the lint or cotton you apply to it be dipped in the oil of roses, it
will be the better; and then put another small rag three or four
times double upon the belly. Upon the top of all put another small
bolster, and then swathe it with a linen swathe four fingers broad, to
keep it steady, lest by rolling too much, or being continually stirred
from side to side, it comes to fall off before the navel string, which
you left remaining, is fallen off. It  is the usual custom of midwives
to put a piece of tinder to it: but I would rather advise them to
put a little of armoniac to it, because of its drying quality. But
But this shall suffice to be spoken as to  the cutting of the navel
string.
SEC. III. How to bring away the after-burden. 
A Woman cannot be said fairly to be delivered, tho' the child
be born, till the after burden also be taken from her; herein
differing from most animals, who, when they have brought fourth
their young, cast forth nothing else but some waters, and the mem-
branes which contained them. But women have an after labour
which sometimes proves more dangerous than the first and how to,
bring it safely away, without prejudice to her, shall be my business
to shew in this section.
As soon as the child is born, before the midwife either ties or cuts
the naval string, left the womb should close, let her take the string
and wind it once or twice about one or two of the fingers of her left
 

THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 45
hand joined together the better to hold it, with which she may draw
it moderately, and with the right hand she may only take a single
hold of it above the left near the privities, drawing likewise with
that very gently, resting the while the fore finger of the same hand,
extended and stretched forth along the string towards the entry of the
vagina; always observing, for the more facility, to draw it from
the side where the burden cleaves least, for in so doing the rest will
separate the better: and especially, care must be taken that it be
not drawn forth with too much violence, lest by breaking the string
near the burden, the midwife will be obliged to put the whole hand
into the womb to deliver the woman; and she had need be a very
skilful woman who undertakes it, lest the womb to which this bur-
den is sometimes very strongly fastened, be not drawn with it, as it
has sometimes happened. It is therefore best to use such remedies
as may assist nature. And here take notice, that what brings away
the birth will also bring away the after-birth. And therefore, for
the effecting this work, I will lay down the following rules:
1. Use the same means in bringing away the after-birth that you
make use of to bring away the birt; for the same care and circum-
spection is needful now that was then.
2. Consider the labouring woman cannot but be much spent by
what she has already undergone in bringing forth the infant; and
therefore before to take care, to give her something to comfort her.
And in this case good jelly broths, also a little white wine and toast
in it, and other comforting things will be necessary.
3. A little white hellebore in powder to make her sneeze, in this
case is very proper.
4. Tansy and the stone Ætites, applied as before directed, is also
of good use in this case.
5. If you take the herb vervain, and either boil it in wine or make
a syrup of the juice of it, which you may do, by adding to it dou-
ble its weight of sugar (having clarified the juice before you boil it)
and a spoonful or two of it given to the woman is very efficacious to
bring away the secundine; and feverfew and mugwort, have the
same operation taken as the former.
6. Alexander boiled in wine, and the wine drank; also tweet ser-
vile, sweet cicedy, angelica roots and master wort, are excellent re-
medies in this case.
7. Or if these fail, the smoke of marygolds receivad up a woman's
privities by a funnel have been known to bring away the after-birth,
even when the midwife let go her hold.
8. Which is all I shall fay in this case. Boil mugwort in water
till it be very soft; then take it out and apply it in manner of a
poultice to the navel of the labouring woman, and it instantly brings 


46 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
away the birth and after-birth: but special care must be taken to
remove it as soon as they come away, lest, by its longer tarrying, it
should draw away the womb also. But this much shall suffice to be
spoken of in bringing, away the after-burden in all natural labours.
SEC. IV. Of labourious and difficult labours, and how the
midwife is to proceed therein.
TO proceed in this section the more regularly, it will be neces-
sary to acquaint the reader that there are three sorts of bud
labours, all painful and difficult, but not all properly unnatural. It
will be necessary therefore to distinguish these.
The first of these bad labours is that wherein the mother and child
suffer very much by extreme pain and difficulty, even though the
child come right ; and this is distinguishably called laborious labour.
The second is that which is difficult, and differs not much from
the former, except that beside those extraordinary pains, it is gene-
rally attended with some unhappy accident, which, by retarding the
birth, causes the difficulty; and these difficulties being removed, ac-
celerates the birth and hastens the delivery.
Some have asked whit the reason is that women bring forth their
children with so much pain? I answer, the sense of feeling is distri-
buted to the whole body by the nerves, and the mouth of the womb
being so strait that it must of necessity be dilated at the time of the
woman's delivery, the dilating thereof stretches the nerves, and
from thence comes the pain. And therefore the reason why some
women have mere pain in their labour than others, proceeds from
their having the mouth of the matrix more full of nerves than o-
thers, as skillful anatomists do easily discover.
But to proceeded, the best way to remove these difficulties that oc-
casion such hard pains and labours as I am here to treat of, is to shew
from whence they proceed, for the cause of any distemper being
known, is as much as half the cure. Now the difficulty of labour
proceeds either from the mother or child, or both.
From the mother, by reason of the indisposition of her body, or
may be from some particular part only, and chiefly the womb, as,
when the woman is weak, and the womb is not active to expel the
burden, or from weakness or disease, or want of spirits; or it may be
from some strong passion of the mind with which she was before pos-
sessed; it may be also because she hath been too young, and so may
have the passage too strait; or too old, and then, if it be her first
child because her parts are too dry and too hard, and cannot be so
easily dilated, as happens also to them who are too lean. Likewise,
those who are either small, or short, or deformed, as crooked women,
who have not a breath strong enough to help, their pains, and to bear
them down; and persons that are crooked having sometimes the


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 47
bones of the passage not well shaped; the cholic also hinders labour,
by preventing the true pains, and all great and acute pains, as when
the woman, is taken with a violent fever, great flooding, frequent
convulsions, bloody flux, or any other great distemper.
Also excrements retained cause much difficulty, and so does a
stone in the bladder: or when the bladder is full of urine, without be-
ing able to void it; or when the woman is troubled with great and
painful biles. It may also be from the passages, when the mem-
branes are thick, the orifice too strait, and the neck of the womb is
not sufficiently open, the passages are pressed and strained by tu-
mours in the adjacent parts, or when the bones are too firm, and will
not open, which very much endangers mother and child; or when
the passages are not slipery, by reason of the water's having broke
too soon, or the membranes being too thin. The womb may also
be out of order with respect to its bad situation, or conformation,
having its neck too strait, hard or callous; which may easily be so
naturally, or may come by accident, being many times caused by a
tumour, a posthume, ulcer, or superfluous flesh.
As to hard labour occasioned by the child, it is when the child hap-
pens to stick to a mole, or when it is so weak that it cannot break
the membranes, or if it be too big all over, or in the head only, or if
the navel vessels are twisted about its neck, when the belly is hydro-
pical, or when it is monstrous, having two heads, or being joined to
another child: also when the child is dead, or so weak that it can
contribute nothing to its birth, likewise when it comes wrong, or
when there are one or two more. And in all these various difficul-
ties there is oftentimes one more, and that is the ignorance of the
midwife; for want of understanding her business hinders nature in
her work, instead of helping her.
Having thus looked into the cause of hard labour, I will now shew
the industrious midwife how she may minister some relief to the la-
bouring woman under these circumstances. But it will require un-
derstanding and judgement in the midwife, when she finds a woman
in difficult labour, to know the particular obstruction, or cause there-
of, and so suitable an remedy may be applied; as for instance, when
it happen's by the mother's being too young and too strait, she must
be gently treated, and the passages anointed with oil, hogs lard, or
fresh butter, to relax and dilate them the easier, lest there should hap-
pen a rupture of any part when the child is born; for sometimes the
peritonæum breaks with the skin from the privities to the fundament.
But if a woman be in years with her first child, let her lower parts
be anointed to mollify the inward orifice, which in such a case being
more hard and callous, doth not easily yield to the distention of la
bour, which is the true cause why such women are longer in labour,


48 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
and also why their children, being forced against the inward orifice
of the womb (which as I have said, is a littlle callous) are born with
great humps and bruises on their heads. Those women that are ve-
ry finall and misshapen should not be put to bed, at least till her wa-
ters are broke, but rather kept upright, and assisted to walk about the
chamber, by being supported under their arms: for by that means
they will breathe more freely, and bear their pains better than on
the bed, because there they lie all on a heap. As for those tbat are
very lean, and have hard labour, from that cause, let them moisten
the parts with oils and ointments, to make them more smooth and
slippery, that the head of the infant and the womb be not so com-
passed and bruised by the hardness of the mother's bones which form
the passage. If the cause be weakness, she ought to be strengthen-
ed, the better to support her pains; to which end give her good jel-
ly broths, and a little wine w th a toast in it. If she fears her pains,
let her be comforted, assuring her that she will not bear many more, but
be delivered in a little time. But if her pains be sow and small, or
none at all, they must be provoked by frequent and pretty strong
clysters, that so they may be excited thereby ; after which, let her
walk about the chamber, that so the weight of the child may help
them forward. But if she stood or have convulsions; she must then
be helped by a speedy delivery; the operation whereof I shall relate
in the section of unnatural labours. If she be costive, let her use
clysters, which may also help to dispel the cholic, at those times ve-
ry injurious, because attended with useless pains, and because such
bear not downwards, and so help not to forward the birth. If she
finds an obstruction or stoppage of the urine, by reason the womb
bears too much on the bladder, let her lift up her belly a little with
her hand, & try if by that she receives any benefit; if she finds shedoes
not, it will be necessary to introduce a catheter in the bladder, and
hereby draw forth her urine. If the difficulty be from the ill pos-
ture of a woman, let her be placed otherwise, in a posture more suit-
able and convenient for her; also if it proceed from the indispositi-
ons of the womb, as from its obliqne situation, &c. it must be reme-
died, as well as can be, by the placing of her body accordingly; or
if be a vicious conformation, having the neck too hard, too callous,
and too strait, it must be anointed with oils and ointments, as before
directed. If the membrane be so strong as that the waters don't
break in due time, they maybe broken with the fingers, if the mid-
wife be first well assured that the child is come forward into the pas
sage, and ready to follow after, or else by the breaking of the waters
too, soon, the child may be in danger of remaining dry a long time;
to supply which defect you may moisten the parts with fomentati- 
tions, decoctions, and emollient oils ; which yet is not half so well as 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 49  
when nature does the work in her own time, with the ordinary slime
and waters, which do best when they come in their own proper time
and place. But these membranes do sometimes press forth with the
waters three or four fingers breadth out of the body before the child
resembling a bladder full of water; but there is then no great danger
to break them, if they be not already broken, for when the case is so
the child is always in readiness follow, being in the passage; but
let the midwife be very careful not to pull it with her hand, lest the
after-burden be thereby loosened before its time, for it adheres there-
to very strongly. If the navel string happens to come first, it must
presently be put up again and kept too, if possible, or otherwise the
woman must be immediately delivered. But if the after-burden
should come first it must not be put up again by no means; for the
infant having no further occasion for it, it would be but an obstacle if
it were put up; in this case it must be cut off, having tied the navel
string, and afterwards drawn forth the child with all the speed that
may be, lest it be suffocated.
SECTION V. Of Women labouring with a dead child. 
WHEN the difficulty of labour arises from a dead child, it is a
case of great danger to the mother, and great care ought
to be taken therein; but before anything be done, the midwife
ought to be well assured the child is dead indeed, which may be
known by these signs.
1. The breast suddenly slacks, or falls flat, or bags down.
2. A great coldness possesses the breast of the mother, especially
about the navel.
3. Her urine is thick, a filthy finking settling at the bottom.
4. No motion of the child can be perceived; for the trial where-
of, let the midwife put her hand in warm water, and lay it upon her
belly; for that, if it be alive, will make it stir.
5. She is very subject to dream of dead men, and be affrighted
therewith.
6. She has extravagant longings to eat such things as are against
nature.
7. Her breath stinks though not used so to do.
8. When she turns herself in her bed, or rises up, the child sways
that way like a lump of lead.
But these things carefully observed, the midwife may make a
judgment whether the child be alive or dead; especially if the wo-
man takes the following prescription;
"Take half a pint of white wine, and burn it, and add thereto
half an ounce of cinnamon, but no other spice whatever " and when
she has drank it, if her travailing pains come upon her, the child is
L


50 TAE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
certainly dead; but it not, the child may possibly be either sick or
weak, but not dead; and in this case, it will refresh the child, and
give her ease: for cinnamon refresheth and strengtheneth the child in
the womb.
Now if upon trial, it be found the child is dead, let the mother
do all she can to forward her delivery, because a dead child can be
no ways helpful therein. It will be necessary therefore that she
take some comfortable things to prevent her fainting, by reason of
those putrid vapours ascending from the dead child. And in order
to her delivery, let her take the following herbs boiled in white wine,
(or as many of them as you can get) viz. Dittany, betony, pen-
nyroyal, sage, feverfew, century, ivy leaves and berries. Let her
also take sweet basil in powder, half a drachm at a time, in white
wine; and her privities be anointed with the juice of garden tan-
sy; or, if you take tansy in the summer, when it may be most plen-
tifully had, and before it runs up to the flower, and having bruised it
well, boil it in oil till the juice of it be consumed. If you set it in
the sun, after you have mixed it with oil, it will be more effectual.
This a careful midwife ought to have always by her. As to the
manner of her delivery, the same methods must be used as are men-
tioned in the section of natural labour. And here I cannot but again
commend the stone Ætites, held near the privities, whose magnetic
virtue draws the child any way, with the same facility as the load-
stone draws iron.
Let the midwife also make a strong decoction of hysop with wa-
ter, and give the woman to drink it very hot, and it will, in a little
time, bring away the dead child. A decoction of the herb master-
wort, used as the above, works the same effects. The roots of po-
lipodium stamped well, warmed a little, and bound on the sides of
her feet, will soon bring away the child either alive or dead.
If, as soon as she is delivered of the dead child, you are in doubt
part of the after-birth is left behind, for in such cases being rotten,
it may come away piece-meal, let her continue drinking the same
decoction till her body is cleansed.
The following medicines stir up also the expulsive faculty; but in
this case they must be made stronger, because the motion of the child
ceaseth.
Take savin, round birthwort, troches of myrrh, asaram roots,
cinnamon half an ounce, saffron a scruple; give a dram with savin
water. Or, Take borax, savin, dittany, each an ounce; myrrh,
asaram roots, cinnamon, saffron, each half a dram; make a powder,
give a dram.
But she may purge first, and put her in an emollient bath, anoint-
ing her round about the womb with oil of lilies, sweet almonds, 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 51
camomile, hen and goose grease. Also, foment to get out the child
with a decoction of mercury, orris, wild cucumbers, sæchus, broom
flowers. Then anoint the privities and loins with ointment of sow-
bread. Or,
Take coloquintida, agarick, birthwort, each a dram, make a pow-
der, add armoniac dissolved in wine, ox gall, each two drams, with
oil of keir make an ointment. Or, make a fume with asss' hoofs
burnt, or gallianum, or castor, and let it be taken in with a funnel.
To take away pains and strengthen the parts, foment with the
decoction of mugwort, mallows, rosemary, woodmyrtle, St. John's
wort, each  half an ounce; spermaceti two drams, deer's suet an
ounce, with wax make an ointment. Or, take wax four ounces,
spermaceti an ounce, melt them, dip flax therin, and lay it all over
her belly.
If none of these things will do, the last remedy is to use surgery,
and then the midwife ought, without delay, to send for an expert and
able man midwife, to deliver her by manual operation; of which
I shall treat more at large in the next chapter.
CHAP. VI.
IN shewing the duty of a midwife, when the woman's labour is
unnatural, it will be requisite, to shew in the first place, what
I mean by unnatural labour; for it is natural to a woman to bring
forth children in pain and sorrow. That which I call unnatural,
is when the child comes to the birth in a contrary posture to that
which nature ordained, and in which the generality of children
come into the world. Now, as truth is out one. but error dilates
itself into infinite variety; so there is but one proper, right and
natural posture in which children come to the birth; but there are
as many wrong and unnatural ways, as there are different postures
of children when they are come to be born. The right and natu-
ral birth is when the child comes with its head first, and yet even
this is too short a definition of a natural birth; for if any part of
the head but the crown comes first, so that the body follow not in
a straight line it is a wrong and difficult birth Now, there are
four general ways a child may come wrong; 1st, When any of
the fore parts of the body present themselves. 2dly, When by
an unhappy transposition, any of the hinder parts first present them-
selves. 3dly, When either of the sides. Or, 4thly, When the
feet present themselves first. To these four, all the particular and
different wrong postures that a child can present itself in, for the birth
may be reduced; and therefore I shall confine myself only to treat
of these four more general wrong ways.
SECTION I. How to deliver a Woman of a dead Child by unna-
tural Operation.


52 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
THE last section of the last chapter treated of the delivering
of a woman of a dead child, and several things were direc-
ted to be applied in order to facilitate the delivery; but when all
these fail, a manual operation is absolutely necessary: In order
thereto, let the operator acquaint the woman with the absolute
necessity there is of such an operation; and that as the child has
already lost its life, there is no other way left for the saving of
her's: Let him also tell her, for her encouragement, that he doubts
not, with the Divine blessing, to deliver her safely, and that the
pains arising thereby, will not be so great as she fears. And then
let him endeavour to stir up the woman's pains, by giving her some
sharp clyster, to excite her throes to bear down and bring forth
the child; and if this prevail not, let him proceed with his manual
operation.
First, Let her be placed across the bed, that he may operate the
easier; and let her lie on her back, with her hips a little higher than
her head, or at least the body equally placed, when it is necessary to
put back or turn the infant to give it a better posture: Being thus
situated, she must fold her legs so as her heels be towards her buttocks,
and her thighs spread, and held by a couple of strong persons; there
must be others also to support her under her arms, that the body
may not slide down when the child is drawn forth, for which some-
times a great strength is required; let the sheets and blankets cover
her thighs for decency's sake, and also to prevent her catching cold.
Then let him anoint the entrance of the womb with oil or fresh but-
ter, if necessary, that so he may with more ease introduce his hand,
which must also be anointed; and having by signs before mentioned,
received satisfaction that it is a dead child, he must do his endeavour
to fetch it away as soon as possible; and if the child offers the head
first, he must gently put it back, until he hath liberty to introduce his
hand quite into the womb: then sliding it along under the belly to
find the feet let him draw it forth by them, being very careful to keep
the head from being locked in the passage, that it be not separated
from the body; which may be effected  the more easily, because the
child being very rotten and purified the operator is not so mindful to
keep the breast and face downwards as he is in living births. But if,
notwithstanding all these precautions, by reason of the child's putre-
faction, the head should be separated, and left behind in the womb,
it must be drawn forth according to the directions which shall be
given in sec. 3. of this chapter for that purpose. But when the head
coming first, is so far advanced that it cannot well be put back, it is
better to draw it forth so, than to torment the woman too much by
putting it back to turn it, and bring it by the feet; but the head be-
ing a part round and slippery, it may so happen that the operator can. 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 53
not take hold of it with his fingers, by reason of its moisture, nor put
them up to the side of it, because the passage is filled with its big-
ness, he must take a proper instrument, and put it up as far as he
can without violence, between the womb and the child's head, ob-
serving to keep the point of it towards the head, and let him fasten
it there, giving it a good hold upon one of the bones of the skull,
that it may not slide: and, after it is well fixed, he may therewith
draw it forth, keeping the ends of the fingers of his left hand, flat
upon the opposite side, the better to help to disengage it, and by
shaking it a little to conduct it directly out of the passage, until
the bead be quite born, and then taking hold of it with the hands
only, the shoulders may be drawn into the passage, and so sliding
the fingers of both hands under the armpits, the child may be quite
delivered: and then the after-burden fetched, being careful not to
pluck the navel-string too hard, lest it break, as often happens, when
it is corrupted
If the dead child come with the arm up to the shoulders so ex-
tremely swelled that the woman must suffer too great a violence to
have it put back, 'tis then the best to take it off at the shoulder joints
by twisting three or four times about, which is very easily done,
by reason of the softness and tenderness of the body: After the arm
is so separated, and no longer possessing the passage, the operator
will have more room to put up his hand into the womb, to fetch the 
child by the feet and bring it away.
But although the operator be sure the child is dead in the womb,
yet he must not therefore presently use instruments, because they are
never to be used but when hands are not sufficient; and there is no
other remedy to prevent the woman's danger, or to bring forth the
child any other way: and the judicious operator will chute that way
which is the least hazardous and most safe.
SECTION II. How a Woman must be delivered when the Child's
Feet come first. 
THERE is nothing more obvious to those whose business it is to
assist labouring women, than that the several unnatural po-
stures in which children present themselves at their births, are the
occasion of the most bad labours and all accidents that happen unto
women in such a condition.
And since-midwives are very often obliged, because of the unna-
tural situation, to draw the children forth by the feet, I conceive it
to be most proper to shew first, how a child must be brought forth
that presents itself in that posture, because it will be a guide to se-
veral of the rest. 
I know indeed that in this case 'tis the advice of several authors to 
L 2

54 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
change the figure, and place the head so, that it may present the
birth; and this council I should be very inclination to follow, could
they but also shew how it must be done: But it will appear very
difficult, if not impossible to be performed, if we will avoid the dan-
gers that by such violent agitations both the mother and the child
must be put into, and therefore my opinion is, That it is better to
draw it forth by the feet, when it presents itself in that posture, than
to venture a worse accident by turning it.
As soon therefore as the waters are broke, and it is known that
the child comes thus, and that the womb is open enough to admit
the midwife's or operator's hard into it, or else by anointing the
passages with oil or hog's grease, to endeavour to dilate by degrees,
using her fingers to this purpose, spreading them one from the other,
after they are together entered, and continuing to do so till it be
sufficiently dilated, then taking care that her nails are well pared,
and no rings on her fingers, and her hands well anointed with oil
or fresh butter, and the woman placed in the manner directed in
the former section, let her gently introduce her hand into the entry
of the womb, where finding the child's feet, let it draw it forth in
the manner I will presently direct; only let her first see whether it 
presents one foot, or both, and if it be but one foot, she ought to
consider whether it is the right foot or the left, and also in what
fashion it comes: for by that means she will soonest come to know
where to find the other, which as soon as she knows and finds, let
her gently draw it forth with the other; but of this she must be
especially careful, viz. that this second be not the foot of another
child; for if so, it may be of the most fatal consequence, for she
may sooner split both mother and child than draw them forth; but
this may be easily prevented, if she does but slide her hand up the
first leg and thigh to the twist, and there find both thighs joined
together, and descending from one and the same body. And this
is also the best means to find the other foot when it comes with
but one.
As soon as the midwife hath found both the child's feet, she may
draw them forth, and holding them together, may bring them by
little and little in this manner, taking afterwards hold of the legs
and thighs as soon as she can come at them, drawing them so till the
hips be come forth. Whilst this is doing, let her observe to wrap
the parts in a single cloth, that so her hands being already greasy,
slide not on the infant's body, which is slippery, because of the vis-
cous humours which are all over it, and prevent one's taking good
hold of it, which being done, she may take hold under the hips, so
to draw it forth to the beginning of the breast; and let her on both
sides with her hand bring down the arms along the child's body, 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 55
which she may then easily find; and then let her take care that the
belly and face of the child be downwards, for if it should be up-
wards, there would be some danger of its being stopt by the chin
over the share bone; and therefore, if it be not so, must turn it to
that posture; which may be easily done if she take hold en the bo-
dy when the breast and arms are forth in the manner we have said,
and draws it with turning it in proportion on that side which it most
inclines to, till it be turned with the face downwards, and so ha-
ving brought it to the shoulders, let her lose no time, and desire
the woman at the same time to bear down, that so at drawing,
the head at that instant, may take its place, and not to be stopt
in the passage Some children there are, whose heads are so big,
that when the whole body is born, yet that stops in the passage,
though the midwife takes all possible care to prevent it. And
when this happens she must not endeavour only to draw forth.
the child by the shoulders, last she sometimes separate the body
from the head, as I have known it done by the midwife, but she
must discharged it by little and little from the bones in the passages
with the fingers of each hand, sliding them on each side opposite
the one to the other, sometimes above, and sometimes under, until
the work be ended, endeavouring to dispatch it as soon as possible,
lest the child be suffocated, as it will unavoidably be, if it should
remain long in that posture: and this being well and carefully
effected, she may soon after such away the after-birth, as I have
before directed.
SECTION III. How to bring away the Head of the Child when
separated from the body, and left behind in the Womb.
THO' the utmost care be taken in bringing away the child by
the feet, yet if the child happens to be dead, it is sometimes
so putrefied and corrupted, that with the least pull the body sepa-
rates from the head, and remains alone in the womb, and cannot be
brought away but with a manual operation and difficulty, it being
extremely slippery, by reason of the place where it is, and from the
roundness of its figure, on which no hold can be well taken: And
so very great is the difficulty in this case, that sometimes two or
three able practitioners in the art of midwifery, have, one after the
other, left the operation unfinished, as not able to effect it, after
the utmost efforts of their industry, skill and strength: so that the
woman not being able to be delivered, perisheth. To prevent which 
fatal accidents, for the time to come, let the following operation be 
observed:
When the infant's head separates from the body, and is left be-
hind, whether through putrefaction, at otherwise, let the operator
immediately, whilst the womb is yet open, direct up his right hand
 

56 THE EXPERIENCED WIDWIFE.
to the mouth, for no other hold can there be had; and having
found it, let him put one or two of his fingers into it, and his
thumb under the chin, and then let him draw it by little and little,
holding it so by the jaw; but if that fails, as sometimes it will,
when purified, then let him pull forth his right hand, and slide up
his left, with which he must support the head, and with the right
let him take, a harrow instrument called a crotchet: but let it be
strong and with a single branch, which he must guide along the in-
side of his hand, with the point of it towards it, for fear of hurting
the womb; and having thus introduced it, let him turn it towards
the head, for to strike either into an eye hole, or the hole of an ear,
or behind the head, or else between the stature, as he finds it most
convenient and easy; and then draw forth the head so fastened with
the said instrument, still helping to conduct it with his left hand;
but when he hath brought it near the passage, being strongly fasten-
ed to the instrument, let him remember to draw forth his hand, that
the passage, not being filled with it, may be the larger and easier,
keeping still a finger or two on the side of the head, the better to
disengage it.
There it also another way to this, with more ease and less hardship
than the former; which is this: let the operator take a soft linen or
fillet slip of above four fingers breadth, and the length of three quar-
ters of an ell or thereabouts, taking the two ends with the left hand,
and the middle with the right, and let them so put it up with his right
as that it may be beyond the head, to embrace it as a sling doth a
stone; and afterwards draw forth the fillet by the two ends together,
it will be easily drawn forth, the fillet not hindering the least pas-
sage, because it takes up little or no space.
When the head is thus fetched out of the womb, care must be ta-
ken that not the least part of it be left behind, and likewise to cleanse
the woman well of her after-burden, if yet remaining, Some have
questioned whether the child's head remaining yet in the womb, or
the after-birth ought to be brought away first? The answer to which
question may be by way of distinction; that is to say, if the burden
be wholly separated from the sides of the womb, that ought to be
first brought away, because it may also hinder the taking hold of the
head; but if it still adheres to the womb, it must not be meddled
with till the head be brought away; for if one should then go about 
to separate it from the womb, it might then cause a flooding, which
would be augmented by the violence of the operation; the vessels to 
which it is joining remaining for the most part open as long as the 
womb is distended, which the head causeth while it is retained in it,
and cannot close till this strange body be voided, and then it doth by
contraction and compressing itself together, as has been more fully
           

THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 57
before explained. Besides the after-birth remaining thus cleaving to
the womb during the operation, prevents it from receiving easily
either bruise or hurt.
SECTION IV. How to deliver a Woman when the side of the
Child's Head is presented to the Birth.
THOUGH some may think it a natural labour when the child's
head may come first, but yet if the child's head presents not
the right way, even that is an unnatural labour, and therefore tho'
the head comes first, yet it it be the side of the head instead of the
crown, it is very dadgerous both to the mother and child, for the child
may sooner break its neck than be born in that manner; and by how
much the mother's pains continue to bear the child, which it is im-
possible, unless the head be rightly placed, the more the passages are
stopt; therefore as soon as the position of the child is known, the
woman must be laid with all speed, lest the child should advance
further in this vicious posture, and therefore render it more difficult
to thrust it back, which must be done in order to place the head in
the passage right as it ought to be.
To this purpose therefore place the woman so that her hips may
be a little higher than her head and shoulders, causing her to lean a
little upon the opposite side to the child's ill posture; then let the
operator slide up his hand, well anointed with oil, by the side of the
child's head, to bring it right, gently with his fingers between the
head and the womb; but if the head be so engaged that it cannot
be done that way, he must then put up his hand to the shoulders,
that so by thrusting them back a little into the womb, sometimes on
the one side, and sometimes on the other, he may by little and lit-
tle give it a natural position. I confess it would be better if the
operator could put back the child by its shoulders with both his hands;
but the head takes up so much room, that he will find much ado to
put up one, with which he must perform his operation, with the help
of the finger ends of the other hand, put forward the child's birth,
as when the labour is natural.
Some children present their face first, having their heads turned
back, in which posture it is extremely difficult that a child should
be born; and if it continne so long, the face will be swelled, and
withal black and blue, that it will at first seem monstrous, which is
occasioned as well by the compression of it in that place, as by the
midwife's fingers handling it too readily, in  order to place it in a
better posture. But this blackness will wear away in three or four
days time, anointing it often with, the oil of sweet almonds. To de-
liver the birth, the same operation must be used as in the former,
when a child comes with the side of the head; only let the midwife
or operator work more gently to avoid as much as possible the brui-
sing of the face.


58 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
SECTION V. How to deliver a Woman when a Child present
one or both Hands together with the Head.
SOMETIMES the infant will present some other part together
with its head, which if it does, it is usually one or both its
hands, and this hinders the birth, because the hands take up part of
that passage which is little enough for the head alone; besides, that
when this happens, they generally cause the head to lean on one side;
and therefore this petition may be very well stiled unnatural. When
the child presents thus, the first thing to be done, after it is perceived,
must be to prevent it from coming down more, or engaging further
in the passage, and therefore the operator, having placed the woman
on the bed a little lower than her hips, must put and guide back the
infant's hand with his own, as much as may be, or both of them,
if they both come down, to give way to the child's head; and
this being done, if the head be on one side, it must be brought
into its natural posture, in the middle, of the passage, that it may
come in a strait line, and then proceed as directed in the foregoing
section.
SECTION VI. How a Woman is to be delivered when the Hands
or feet of the Infant come together.
THERE is none but will readily grant, that when the hands
and feet of an infant present together, the labour must be
unnatural, because it is impossible a child should be born in that
manner. In this therefore, when the midwife guides her hand to-
wards the orifice of the womb, she will perceive only many fingers 
close together; and if it be not sufficiently dilated, it will be a good
while before the hands and feet will be exactly distinguished; for
they are sometimes so shut and pressed together, that they seem to
be all of one and the same shape; but where the womb is open
enough to introduce the hand into it, she will easily know which are
the hands, and which are the feet; and having well taken notice
thereof, let her slide her hand, and presently direct it towards the
infant's breast, which she will find very near, and then let her very
gently thrust back the body towards the bottom of the womb, leav-
ing the feet in the same place where she found them; and then ha-
ving placed the woman in a convenient posture, that is to say, her
hips a little raised above her breast and head (which situation ought
always te be observed when the child is to be put back into the 
womb) let the midwife afterwards take hold of the child by the feet
and draw it forth, as is directed in the second section.
This labour, though somewhat troublesome, yet is much better
than when the child presents only its hands; for the child must be
quite turned about before it can be drawn forth; but in this, they
          

THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 59 
are ready, presenting themselves, and in this there is not so much
to do, but to lift and thrust back a little the upper part of the body,
which is almost done of itself by drawing it along by the feet.
I confess there are many authors that have written of labours,
who would have all wrong births reduced to a natural figure; which
is to turn it, that it may come with the head first; but those that
have thus written, are such as never understood the practical part;
for if they had the least experience herein, they would know that it
is very often impossible, at least if it were to be done, that violence
must necessarily be used in doing it, that would very probably be
the death of mother and child in the operation. I would therefore
lay down as a general rule, that whensoever an infant presents itself
wrong to the birth, in what posture soever from the shoulders to
the feet, it is the best way, and soonest done, to draw it out by the
feet: and that it is better searching for them,  if they do not pre-
sent themselves, rather than try to put it in the natural posture, and
place the head foremost; for the great endeavours necessary to be
used in turning the infant in the womb, do so much weaken both
mother and child, that there remains not afterwards strength enough
to commit the operation to the works of nature, for usually the wo-
man hath no more throes or pains fit for labour, after she has been
so wrought upon; for which reason it would be very difficult and
tedious at best: and the child, by such an operation, made very
weak, would be in extreme danger of perishing before it could be
born. It is therefore much better in these cases, to bring it away
immediately by the feet, searching for them, as I have already
directed, when they do not present themselves: by which the mo-
ther will be prevented of a tedious labour, and the child be often
brought alive into the world, who otherwise would hardly escape
death. And thus much shall suffice to be said of unnatural labours:
for by the rule already given, a skillful artist will know how to pro-
ceed in any posture in which the child shall present itself.
SECTION VII. How a Woman shall be delivered that has twins
which present themselves in different postures.
WE have already spoken something of the birth of twins in
the chapter of unnatural labour; for it is not an unnatural
labour barely to have twins, provided they come in a right position
to the birth. But when they shall present themselves in divers
postures, they come properly under the denomination of unnatural
labours; and if when one child presents itself in a wrong figure, it
makes it much worse so when there are several, and renders it not
only more painful to the mother and children, but to the operator
also; for they often trouble each other, and hinder both their births,
besides which, the womb is then so filled with them, that the ope-
 

60 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
rator can hardly introduce his hand without much violence, which
he must do, if they be to be turned to thurst back, to give them a
better position.
When a woman is pregnant with two children, they rarely pre-
sent to the birth together, the one being generally more forward
than the other, and that is the reason that but one is felt; that ma-
ny times the midwife knows not that there are twins, till the first is
born, and that she is going to fetch away the after-birth. In the
5th chapter, wherein I treated of natural labour, I shewed how a
woman should be delivered of twins, presenting themselves both
right: and therefore, before I close this chapter of unnatural labour,
it only remains that I shew what ought to be done, when they ei-
ther both come wrong, or one of them only, as for the most part it
happens; the first generally coming right, and the second with the
feet forward, or in some worse posture. In such a case, the birth
of the first must be hastened as much as possible, to make way for
the second, which is best brought away by the feet, without endea-
vouring to place it right, even though it was somewhat inclining to-
wards it, because it has been already tired and weakened by the
birth of the first, as well as its mother, that there would be greater
danger of its death, than likelihood cf its coming out of the womb
that way.
But if, when the first child is born naturally, the second should
likewise offer its head to the birth, it would be then best leaving na-
ture to finsh what she has so well begun; and if nature should be
too flow in her work, some of those things mentioned in the fourth
chapter to accelerate the birth, may be properly enough applied;
and if, after that, the second birth should be yet delayed, let a ma-
nual operation be deferred no longer: but the woman being pro-
perly placed, as has been before directed, let the operator direct
his hand gently into the womb to find the feet, and so draw forth
the second child, which will be the more easily effected, because
there is way made sufficient by the birth of the first; and if the wa-
ters of the second child be not broke, as it often happens, yet in-
tending to bring it away by the feet, he need not scruple to break
the membranes with his fingers: for though when the birth of a
child is left to the operation of nature, it is necessary that the waters
should break of themselves; yet when the child is brought out of
the womb by art, there is no danger in breaking of them; nay, on
on the contrary, it becomes necessary; for without the waters are
broke, it would be almost impossible to turn the child.
But herein principally lies the care of the operator that he is not
deceived, when either the hands or the feet of both children offer
themselves together to the birth; in this case he ought well to con- 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 61
der the operation, as whether they be not joined together, or any
way monstrous; and whch part belongs to one child and which to
the other, that so they may be fetched one after the other, and not
both together, as might be, if it were not duly considered, taking
the right foot of the one and the left foot of the other, and so draw-
ing them together, as if they belonged to one body, because there is
a left and a right, by which means it would be impossible ever to de-
liver them; But a skillful operator will easily prevent this, if hav-
ing found two or three feet of several children, presenting together
in a passage, and taking a side two of the forwardest, a right and a
left, and sliding his hands along the legs and thighs up to the twist,
if forwards, or the buttocks, if backwards, he finds they both belong
to one body; of which being thus assured, he may begin to draw
forth the nearest, without regarding which is strongest or weakest,
bigger or less, living or dead, having put first a little aside that part
of the other child which offers to have the more way, and so dis-
patch the first, wherever it is, as soon as may be, observing the same
rules, as if there were but one, that is, keeping the breast and face
downwards, with every circumstance directed in that section where
the child comes with its feet first: and not fetch the burthen till the
second child is born. And therefore when the operator hath drawn
forth one child, he must separate it from the burden, having tied and
cut the navel string, and then fetch the other by the feet in the
same manner, and afterwards, bring away the after-burden with the
two strings, as have been before shewed. If the children present
any other part than the feet, the operator may follow the same me-
thod as is directed in the foregoing section, where the several unna-
tural positions are carefully treated of.
CHAP. VIII.
Directions for Child-bearing Women in their lying-in.
IN the fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters, we have treated at large
of women's labour, and how they may be safely delivered both
in natural and unnatural labours. Having therefore thus brought
the good woman to bed, I will in this chapter direct how she ought
to be ordered in her lying-in.
SECTION I. How a Woman newly delivered ought to be ordered.
AS soon as she is laid in bed, let her be placed in it conveni-
ently for ease and rest, which she stands in great need of,
to recover herself of the great fatigue she underwent during her
travial; and, that she may lie the more easy, let her head and body
be a little raised, that she may breathe the more freely, and cleanse
the better, especially of that blood which then comes away, that so
it may Hot clot, which being retained, causeth, very great pain. 
M


62 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
Having thus placed her in bed, let her drink a draught of burnt
white wine, when you have first melted therein a dram of sperma-
ceti. The herb vervain is also a most singular herb for a woman in
this condition, boiling it in what she either eats or drinks, fortify-
ing the womb so exceedingly, that it will do it more good in two
days, having no offensive taste, though very pleasant virtues. And
this is no more than what she stands in need of, for her lower parts
being so greatly distended to the birth of the infant, it is good to
endeavour the prevention of an inflammation there. Let therefore
be outwardly applied all over the bottom of the belly and privities,
the following anodyne or cataplasm. Take two ounces of oil of
sweet almonds, and two or three new laid eggs, yolks and whites
stirring them together in an earthen pipkin over hot embers, till
it comes to the consistence of a poultice; which being spread upon a
doth, must be applied to those parts indifferently warm, having
first taken away the closures (which were put to her presently after
her delivery) and likewise such clots of blood as were then left.
Let this lie on five or six hours, and then renew it again as you see
cause.
Great care ought to be taken at first, that if her body be very
weak, she be not kept too hot, for extremity of heat weakens na-
ture and dissolves the strength; and whether she be weak or strong,
be sure that no cold air comes near her at first; for cold is an ene-
my to the spermatic part, and if it gets into the womb, it increases
the after-pains, causes swellings in the womb, and hurts the nerves.
As to her diet, let it be hot, and let her eat but a little at a time.
Let her avoid the light for three or four days, and longer if she be
weak, for her labour weakens her eyes exceedingly, by a harmony
between the womb and them. Let her avoid great noises, sadness
and troubles of mind.
If the womb be foul, which may be easily perceived by the im-
purity of the blood (which will then either come away in clots or
stinking, or if you suspect any of the after-burden to be left behind,
which may sometimes happen) make her drink of featherfew, mug-
wort, pennyroyal and mother of thyme, boiled in white wine, sweet-
ened with sugar.
Panada and new laid eggs is the best meat for her at first, of
which she may eat often, but not too much at a time. And let her
use cinnamon in all her meat and drink, for it is a great strengthener
to the womb.
Let her stir as little as may be, till after the fifth, sixth, or se-
venth days of her delivery, if she be weak.  And let her talk as
little as may be, for that weakens her.
If she goes not well to stool, give a clyster made only with the 

THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 63
decoction of mallows and a little brown sugar.
When she hath laid-in a week or more, let her use such things as
close the womb, of which knot grass and comfrey are very good: and
to them you may add a little polypodium, for it will do her good,
both leaves and roots being bruised.
SEC II. How to remedy those accidents which a lying-in Wo-
man is subject to.
1. THE first common and usual accident that troubles women,
in their lying-in, is after-pains; the cause whereof, some
affirm to be one thing, and some another; but it is most certain that
they proceed from cold and wind contained in the bowels with which
they are filled after labour, because when they have more room to
dilate, than when the child was in the womb, by which they were
compressed, and also because the nourishment and matter contained.
in them and the stomach, has been confusedly agitated from side
to side, during the pains of labour, and could not be well digested,
whence this wind is afterwards generated, and by consequence, the
gripes which the woman feels running into her belly from side to
side, according as the wind moves, and sometimes from the womb,
because of the compression and commotion which the bowels make.
These being generally the cause, let us now apply a suitable re-
medy.
2. Boil an egg soft, and pour out the yolk of it, with which
mix a spoonful of cinnamon water, and let her drink it; and if
you mix in it two grains of ambergrease, it will be the better; and
yet vervain taken in any thing she drinks, will be as effectual as
the other.
3. Give the lying-in woman, immediately after delivery, oil of
sweet almonds and syrup of maidenhair mixed together; some prefer
oil of walnuts, provided it be made of nuts that are very good, but
it tastes worse than the other. This will lenify the inside of the in-
testines by its unctuousness, and by that means bring away that
which is contained in them more easily.
4. Take and boil onions very well in water, then stamp them
with oil and cinnamon and seed in powder, spread them upon a cloth,
and apply them to the region of the womb.
5. Let her be careful to keep her belly very hot, and not to drink
what is too cold: and if they prove very violent, hot cloths, from
time to time, must be laid to her belly, or a pancake fried in wal-
nut oil, may be applied to it, without swathing her belly so strait;
and, for the better evacuating the wind out of the intestines, give
her a clyster, repeating it as often as necessity requires.
6. Take bayberries, beat them to powder, put the powder upon
a chaffing dish of coals, and let her receive the smoke of them up 


64 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
her privities.
Take tar and barrows grease, of each an equal quantity, boil
them together, and, whilst it is boiling, add a little pigeon's dung to
it. Spread some of this upon a linen cloth, and apply it to the
reins of her back, and it will give her speedy ease.
Lastly, let her take half a dram of bay berries beaten into a pow-
der, in a draught of milliard or tent.
II. Another accident to which women in child-bed are subject,
is the hemorrhoids, or piles, occasioned through their straining in
bringing the child into the world. To cure this,
1. Let her be let blood in the vein saphæna.
2. Let her use polypodium in her meat and drink, bruised and
boiled.
3. Take an onion, and, having made an hole in the middle of it,
fill it full of oil, toast it, and having bruised it all together, apply
it to the fundament.
4. Take as many wood lice as you can get, and bruise them,
and having mixed them with a little oil, apply them warm as be-
fore.
5. If she go well to stool, let her take an ounce of cassia fistula
drawn at night going to bed; she need no change of diet after.
III. Retention of the menstrues is another accident happening
to women in child-bed; and, which is of so dangerous consequence,
that, if not timely remedied it proves mortal. Where this hap-
pens.
1. Let the woman take such medicines as strongly provoke the
terms, such as dittany, betony, pennyroyal, favory, featherfew,
centaury, juniper berries, piony roots.
2. Let her take two or three spoonfuls of briony water each mor-
ning,
3. Gentian roots beaten into a powder, and a dram of it taken
every morning in wine, is an exrraordinary remedy.
4. The root of birthwort, either long or round, so used and taken
as the former, is very good.
5. Take twelve piony seeds, and beat them into very fine powder,
and let her drink them in a draught of hot carduus posset, and let
her sweat after. And if this last medicine don't bring them down
the first time she tastes it, let her take as much more three hours
after, and it seldom fails.
IV. Overflowing of the menses is another accident incidental to
child-bed women.
1. Take shepherds' purse, either boiled in any convenient li-
quor, or dried, and beaten into powder, and it will be an admira-
ble remedy to stop them, this being especially appropriated to the 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 65
privities.                                           
2. The flowers and leaves of brambles, or either of them, being
dried and beaten into powder, and a dram of them taken every morn-
ing in a spoonful of red wine, or in the decoction of the leaves of
the same (which perhaps is much better) is an admirable remedy for
the immoderate flowing of the terms in women.
V. Excoriations, bruises, and rents of the lower part of the
womb, are often occasioned by the violent distention and separa-
tion of the four caruncles in a woman's labour. For the healing
whereof.
As soon as the woman is laid, if there be only simple contusi-
ons and excoriations, let the anodyne cataplasm, formerly directed,
be applied to the lower parts, to ease the pain, made of the yolks
and whites of new laid eggs, and oil of roses, boiled a little over
warm embers, continually stirring it till it be equally mixed, and
then spread upon a fine cloth, it must be applied very warm to the
bearing place for five or six hours, and when it is taken away, lay
some rags, dipped in oil of St. John's wort twice or thrice a day,
also some foment the parts with barley water and honey of roses to
cleanse them from the excrements which pass. When the woman:
makes water, let them be defended with fine rags, and thereby hin-
der the urine from causing smart and pain.
VI. The curdling and clotting of the milk is another accident
that often happens to women's in child-bed; for, in the beginning
of child bed, the woman's milk is not purified, because of those
great commotions her body suffered during her labour, which affec-
ted all the parts, and it is then mixed with many other humours.
Now this clotting of milk does, for the most part, proceed from
the breasts not being fully drawn, and that either because she hath
too much milk, and that the infant is too small and weak, to suck
all, or because she doth not desire to be a nurse, for the milk in
those cases, remaining in the breast after concoction, without being
drawn, loseth the sweetness and the balsamic quality it had, and,
by reason of the heat it acquires, and the too long, stay it makes
there, it fours, curdles, and clots, as we see runnet put into ordi-
nary milk turns into curds. This curdling of the milk may be also
caused by having, taken a great, cold, and, not keeping the breasts
well covered.
But from what causes soever this curdling of the milk proceed,
the most certain remedy is, speedily to draw the breasts until they
are emitted and dried. But in regard of the infant, by reason of
its weakness, cannot draw strong enough, it will see proper to
get another woman to draw her breasts, until the milk comes
M 2


66 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
freely, and then she may give her child suck. And, that she may
not afterwards be troubled with a surplusage of milk, she must
eat such diet as gives but a little nourishment, and keep her body
open.
But if the case be such that the woman neither can nor will be a
nurse, it is then necessary to empty the body by bleeding in the arm;
besides drawing down the humours, by strong clysters, and bleeding
in the foot, nor will it be amiss to purge gently; and to digest, dis-
solve and dissipate the curdled milk, apply the cataplasm of pure
honey, or use the following liniment:
A Liniment to scatter and dissipate the Milk.
That the milk flowing back to the breasts, may without offence
be dissipated, use this ointment: " Take pure wax two ounces, lint-
seed oil half a pound; when the wax is melted, let the liniment
be made, wherein linen cloths must be dipped, and laid upon the
breast; and when it shall be discussed, and pains no more, let other
linen cloths be dipped in the distilled water of acorns, and put upon
them."
Note, That the cloths dipped in the distilled water of acorns,
must be used only by those who cannot nurse their own children;
but if a swelling in the breasts of those who give suck, arises from
abundance of milk, and threatens an inflammation, use the former
ointment, but abstain from using the distilled water of acorns.
CHAP. VIII.
Directions for nurses in ordering new-born children.
HAVING in the former chapter shewn how the lying-in wo-
man should be ordered, it is now high time to take care of
the infant, to whom the first service that should be performed for it,
is the cutting of the navel-string, of which I have spoken at large be-
fore.
SECTION I. What is to be done to the new-born infant after
cutting the navel-string.
WHEN the child's navel-string has been cut, according to the
rules before prescribed, let the midwife presently cleanse it.
from the excrements and filth it brings into the world with it; of
which some are within the body, as the urine in the bladder, and the
excrement found in the guts; and others without, which are
thick, whitish and clammy, proceeding  from the sliminess of the
waters: There are children sometimes so covered over with this,
that one would say they are rubbed over with soft cheese and some
women are of so easy a belief, that they really thinki t so, because
they had eaten some while they were with child. From these ex-
crements let the child he cleansed with wine & water a little warm-
ed, washing every part therewith but chiefly the head, because of


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 67
the hair, also the folds of the groins, armpits, and the cods or privi-
ties; which parts must be gently cleansed with a linen rag, or a soft
spunge dipped in this lukewarm wine. If this clammy or viscious
excrements stick so close that it will not be easily washed off from
those places, it may be fetched off with the oil of sweet almonds, or
a little fresh butter melted with wine, and afterwards well dried off.
She must also make tent of fine rags, and, wetting them in this
liquor, clear the ears and nostrils; but for the eyes, wipe them only
with a dry soft rag, not dipping it in the wine, lest it should make
them smart.
The child being thus washed and cleansed from its native blood
and impunities which attended it into the world it must, in the next
place be searched to see whether all things be right about it, and
that there is no fault or dislocation; whether its nose be straight, or
its tongue tied, whether there be any bruise or tumour on the head,
or whether the mould be not overshotten; also whether the scrotum,
if a boy, be not blown and swelled; and in short, whether it has
suffered any violence in any part of the body, and whether all the
parts be well and duly shaped, that suitable remedies may be appli-
ed, if any part be found not right. Nor is it enough that all be
right without, and the outside of the body cleansed, but she must
chiefly observe whether it discharged the excrements retained with-
in, and whether the passages be open for some have been born
without having them perforated; therefore let her examine whether
the conduits of the urine and stool be clear, for want of which some
have died, not being able to avoid their excrements, because timely
care was not taken at first. As to the urine, all children, males
and females, do make water as soon as they are born, if they can,
especially when they feel the heat of the fire, and sometimes also
the excrements, but not so soon as the urine. If the infant does
not ordure the first day, then put up into its fundament a small sup-
repository, to stir it up to be discharged, that it may not cause pain-
ful gripes by remaining so long in its belly. A sugar almond may
be proper tor this purpose, anointed over with a little boiled honey,
or else a small piece of castile soap rubbed over with fresh butter;
she may also give the child, to this purpose, a little syrup of vio-
lets at the mouth, mixed with some oil of sweet almonds drawn
without a fire, anointing the belly also with the same oil or a little
fresh butter.
The midwife having thus washed and cleansed the child, accord-
ding to the before mentioned directions, let her begin to swaddle in
swathing clothes, and when she dresses the head, let her put small
rags behind the ears to dry up the filth which usually engenders
there, and also in the folds of the armpits and groins, and so swathe
 

68 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
it, having wrapped it up warm in bed and blankets; only take care
that they swathe not the child too strait, especially about the breast
and stomach, that it may breath the more freely, and not be forced
to vomit up the milk it sucks, because the stomach cannot be suffi-
cientiy extended to contain it; therefore, let its arms and legs be
wrapped in its bed stretched and straight, and swathed to keep them
so, viz. the arms along its sides, and its legs equally both together,
with a little of the bed between them, that they may not be galled
by rubbing each other; let the head be kept steady and straight,
with a stay fastened on each side the blanket, and then wrap the
child up in mantles and blankets to keep it warm. This swathing
of the infant is very necessary to give its body a straight figure,
which is soft decent and proper for a man, and to accustom him
to keep upon his feet, and not walk on all-four, as most other ani-
mals do.
CHAP. IX.
NEW-BORN children are subject to so many distemper
that daily experience shews us, there are not above half the
children that are born who live till they are three years old ; which
is occasioned by the tenderness of their bodies, and feebleness of
their age, which hinders them from expressing the incommodities
they labour under, any otherwise than by their cries. The busi-
ness of this chapter therefore will be to discover the indispositions to
which they are subject, with the remedies proper them.
SECTION I. Of Gripes and Pains in the Bellies of young
Children.
THIS I mention first, as it is often the first and common dis-
temper which happens to little infants after their birth, many
children being so troubled and pained therewith, that they cry night
and day, and at last die of it. This comes, for the most part, from
the sudden change of their nourishment, for having always received
it from the umbilical vessels, whilst in their mother's womb, they
come to change, on a sudden, not only the manner of receiving it,
but the nature and quality of what they receive, as soon as they
are born: for instead of purified blood only, conveyed to them by
means of the umbilical vein, they are now obliged to be nourished
with their mother's breast milk, which they suck with their mouths, 
and from which are engendered many excrements, causing gripes
and pains, and that not only because it is net so pure as the blood
with which it was nourished in the womb, but because the stomach
and intestines cannot yet make a good digestion. It is also caused
sometimes by a tough phlegm, and sometimes by the worms; for
physicians affirm, that worms have been bred in children even in
their mother's belly. 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 69
The remedy therefore must be suited to the cause; if it proceed
from the too sudden changes of nourishment, the remedy must be
to forbear to give the child suck for some days, lest the milk be
mixed with phlegm; and at first it must suck but little, until it be
accustomed to digest it. If it be the excrements in the intestines,
which by their long stay increase their pains, give them at the mouth
a little oil of sweet almonds, and syrup of roses. If it be worms,
lay a cloth dipped in oil of wormwood, mixed with ox-gall, upon
the belly ; for  a small cataplasm, the powder of rue, wormwood,
coloquintida, aloes, the seeds of citron, incorporated with ox-gall,
and the powder of lupines. Or, give it oil of sweet almonds, with
sugar candy, and a scruple of anis seed; it purges new-born babes
from green choler and stinking phlegm, and if it be given with su-
gar pap it allays the griping pains of the belly. Also anoint the
belly with oil of dill, or pellitory stamped with oil of camomile to
the belly.
SECTION II. Of weakness in new-born infants.
WEAKNESS Is an accident that many children bring into the
world along with them, and is often occasioned by the la-
bour of the mother, by the violence and length whereof they suffer
so much, that they are born with great weakness, and many times it
is difficult to know whether they are alive or dead, their body appear-
ing so senseless, and their face so blue and livid, that they seem to be
quite choaked; and, even after some hours, their shewing signs of
life is attended with so much weakness, that it looks like a return
from death, and that they are still upon the borders of that king-
dom.
In this case, the best way to help the infant is to lay him speedily
in a warm bed and blankets, and carry him to the fire, and then let
the midwife sup a little wine, and spout it into his mouth, repeating
it often, if there be occasion. Let her apply linen to the breast and
belly dipped in wine, and then let the face be uncovered that the may
breathe the more freely; also let the midwife keep its mouth a lit-
tle open, cleanse the nostrils with small linen tents dipped in white
wine, that so he may receive the small of it and let her chase every
part of his body well with warm cloths, to bring hack the blood and
spirits, which being retired inward through weakeness often puts him
in danger of being choaked. By the application of these means the
infant will insensibly recover strength, and begin to stir his limbs by
degrees, and at length to cry, which though it be but weakly at first,
yet afterwards as he breathes more freely, he will cry stronger and
stronger. 
 

70 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
SECTION III. Of the Fundament being closed up in a new-born
Infant.
ANOTHER effect that new-born infants are liable to, is to have
their fundaments closed up, by means whereof they can nei-
ther evacuate the new excrements engendered by the milk they suck;
nor that which was amassed in their intestines whilst in their mo-
ther's belly, which is certainly mortal without a speedy remedy.—
There have been some female children who have had their fundament
quite closed, and yet have avoided the excrements of the guts by an
orifice, which nature, to supply that defect, had made within the
neck of the womb.
For the cure or remedy of this, we must notice that the fundament
is closed two ways; either by a single skin, through which one may
discover some black and blue marks, proceeding from the excrements
retained, which of one touch with the finger, there is a softness felt
within, and there abouts it ought to be pierced: or else is quite stop-
ped by a thick fleshy substance, in such fort that there appears, no-
thing without by which its true situation may be known. When
there is nothing but the single skin which makes the closure, the ope-
ration is very easy, and the child may do very well: for then an a
pertion or opening may be made with a small incision knife, cross
ways, that it may the better receive a round form, and that the
place afterwards may not grow together, taking great care not to
prejudice the sphincter or muscle of the Rectum. The incision be-
ing thus made, the excrements will certainly have issue. But if, by
reason of their long stay in the belly, they are become so dry that
the infant cannot void them, then let a small clyster be given to
moisten and bring them away; afterwards put a linen tent into the
new-made fundament, which at first had best be anointed with honey
of roses, and towards the end with a drying cicatrizing ointment,
such as Unguentum, Album, or Pomphelix, observing to cleanse the
infant of his excrements, and dry it again as soon and as often as he
evacuates them, that so the apertion may be prevented from turn-
ing into a malignant ulcer.
But now if the fundament be stopped up in such a manner, that
neither mark nor appearance can be either seen or felt, then the ope-
ration is more difficult ; and even when it is done, the danger is
much more of the infant's escaping it. And then if it be a female,
and that it sends forth its excrements by the way I have mentioned
before, it is better not to meddle, than by endeavouring to remedy
an inconvenience, to run an extreme hazard of the infant's death.
But when there is no vent for the excrements, without which death
is unavoidable, there the operation is justifiable.
The operation in this case must be thus; let the operator, with a 
           

THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 71
small incision knife that hath but one edge, enter into the void place,
and turning the back of it upwards within half a finger's breadth of
the child's rump, which is the place where he will certainly find the
intestine, let him thrust it forward, that it may be open enough to
give free vent to the matters there contained, being especially care-
ful of the sphincter; after which, let the wound be dressed according
to the method directed.
SECTION IV. Of the Thrush, or Ulcers in the mouth of an Infant.
THE thrush is a distemper that children are very often subject to,
and it arises from bad milk, or from foul humours in the stom-
ach; for sometimes, though there be no ill quality in the milk itself,
yet it may corrupt in the child's stomach because of its weakness, or
some other indisposition, in which, acquiring an acrimony instead of
being well digested, there arises from thence biting vapours, which
forming a thick viscosity, do thereby produce this distemper.
It is often difficult, as physicians tell us, because it is seated in hot
and moist places, where the putrefaction is easily augmented, and for
that the remedies applied cannot lodge there, being soon washed a-
way by spittle. But if they arise from too hot a quality in the
nurse's milk, care must be taken to temper and cool, prescribing her
cool diet, blooding and purging her also, if there be occasion.
Take lentiles husked, powder them and lay it upon the child's
gums; or take melidium in flower, half an ounce, and with oil of
roses make a liniment. Also wash the child's mouth with barley and
plantain water, and honey of roses, or syrup of dry roses, mixing them
with a little verjuice, or juice of lemons as well to loosen and cleanse
the vicious humours which cleave to the inside of the child's mouth,
as to cool those parts which are already over-heated. This may be
done by means of a small fine rag fastened to the end of a little
stick, and dipped therein, wherewith the ulcers may be gently rub-
bed, being careful not to put the child to too much pain, lest an in-
flamation make the distemper worse. The child's body must be al-
so kept open, that the humours being carried to the lower parts, the
vapours may not ascend, as it it usual for them to do, when the bo-
dy is costive, and the excrements too long retained. If the ulcers
appear malignant, let such remedies be used as do their work spee-
dily, that the evil qualities that cause them being thereby instantly
corrected, their malignity may be prevented; and in this case touch
the ulcers with plantain waters sharpened with the spirits of vitriol,
for the remedy must be made sharp, according to the malignity of
the distemper. It will not be unnecessary to purge these ill humours
out of the whole habit of the child, by giving half an ounce of suc-
cory with rhubarb. 


72 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
SECTION V. Of Pain in the Ears, Inflammation, Moisture, &c.
THE brain in infants is very moist, and hath many excrements
which nature cannot send out at its proper passages; they get
often to the ears, and there cause pains, flux of blood, with inflammati-
on, and matter with pain: and in children is hard to be known, ha-
ving no other way to make it known but by constant crying; you
will also perceive them ready to feel their ears themselves, but will
not let others touch them if they could help it: and sometimes you
may discern the parts about the ears to be very red. These pains,
if let alone, are of dangerous consequences, because they bring forth
watching and epilepsy, for the moisture breeds worms there, and
fouls the spongy bones, and by degrees incurable deafness.
To prevent all those ill consequences, allay the pain with all con-
venient speed, but have a care of using strong remedies. Therefore
only use warm milk about the ears, with the decoction of poppy tops,
or oil of violets: to take away the moisture, use honey of roses, and
let acquamellis be dropped into their ears; or take virgin honey half
an ounce, red wine two ounces, allum, saffron, saltpetre, each a dram;
mix them at the fire; or drop in hempfeed oil with a little wine.
SECTION VI. Of redness and inflammation of the buttocks,groin
and thighs of an infant.
IF there be no great care taken to change and wash the child's
beds as soon as they are fouled with the excrements, and to keep
the child very clean, their acrimony will be sure to cause redness,
and beget a smaring in the buttocks, groin and thighs of the child,
which by reason of the pain, will afterwards be subject to inflamma-
tions, which follow the sooner, through the delicacy and tenderness
of their skin, from which the outward skin of the body in a short
time separated and worn away.
The remedy of this is twofold; that is to say, first, to keep the
child cleanly, and in the second place, to take off the sharpness of
its urine. As to keeping it cleanly, she must be a sorry nurse that
needs to be taught how to do it, for if she lets it but have dry, clean
and warm beds and clouts, as often and soon as it has fouled and wet
them, either by its urine or excrements, it will be sufficient; and,
as to the second, the taking off the sharpness of the child's urine,
that must be done by the nurse's keeping a cooling diet, that her
milk may have the same quality; and therefore she ought to ab-
stain from all things that may heat it. But besides there, cooling
and drying remedies are requisite to be applied to the inflamed parts;
therefore, let the parts be bathed with plantain water, with a fourth
of lime water added to it, each time the child's excrements are
wiped off; and if the pain be very great, let it only be fomented
with lukewarm milk. The powder of a post to dry it, or a little mill 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 73
dust strewed upon the parts affected, may be proper enough: and it
is used by several women. Also Unguentum Album, or Diapam-
pholigos, spread upon a small piece of feather in form of a plaister,
will not be amiss.
But the chief thing must be the nurses taking great care to wrap
the inflamed parts with fine rags when she opens the child, that those
parts may not be gathered and pained by rubbing them together.
SEC. VII. Of vomiting in young children.
VOMITING in children proceeds sometimes from too much milk,
and sometimes from bad milk, and is often from a moist loose
stomach; for as dryness retains, so loosness lets go. This is for
the most part, without danger in children; and they that vomit
from their birth are the lustiest; for the stomach, not being used to
meat, and milk being taken too much, crudities are easily bred, or
or the milk is corrupted; and is better to vomit these up than to
keep them in; but if vomiting last long, it will cause an atrophy or
consumption for want of nourishment.
To remedy this, if from too much milk, that which is emitted is
yellow and green, or otherwise ill coloured; in this case, mend the
milk, as has been shewed before; cleanse the child with honey of
roses, and strengthen its stomach with syrup of milk and quinces
made into an eluctuary. If the humour be hot and sharp, give
the syrup of pomegrantes, currants and coral; and apply to the bel-
ly the plaister of bread, the stomach create, or bread dipped in hot
wine; or take oil of mastic, quinces, mint, worm wood, each half an
ounce; of nutmegs by expression, half a drachm, chymical oil of
min, three drops. Coral hath an occult property to prevent vomit-
ing, and is therefore hung about their necks.
SEC. V II. Of breeding teeth in young children.
THIS is a very great, and yet necessary evil in all children,
having variety of symptoms joined with it; they begin to
come forth, not all at a time, but one after another, about the sixth
and seventh month; the fore teeth coming first, then the eye teeth
and at last of all the grinders; the eye teeth cause more pain to the
child than any of the rest, because they have a very deep root, and a
small nerve, which hath communication to that which makes the
eye move. In the breeding of their teeth, first they feel an itch-
ing in their gums, when they are pierced as with a needle, and prick-
ed by the sharp bones, whence proceed great pains, watching, and
inflammation of the gums, fever, looseness, and convulsion, especial-
ly when they breed their eye teeth.
The signs when children breed their teeth, are these, 1. Iti s
known by their time, which is usually about, the seventh month. 2


74 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
Their gums are swelled, and they feel a great heat there, with an
itching, which makes them put their fingers in their mouth to rub
them, from whence a moisture distils down into the mouth, because
of the pain they feel there. 3. They hold the nipple faster than
before. 4. The gum is white where the tooth begins to come; and
the nurse in giving them suck finds the mouth hotter, and that they
are much changed, crying every moment, and cannot sleep, or but
very little at a time. The fever that follows breeding of teeth
comes from cholerick humours, inflamed by watching, pain and heat.
And the longer teeth are breeding, the more dangerous it is, so that
many in the bleeding of them die of fevers and convulsions.
For remedy, two things are to be regarded; one is, to preserve
the child from the evil accidents that may happen to it by reason of
the great pain; the other, to assist as much as may be the cutting of
the teeth, when they can hardly cut the gums themselves.
For the first of these, i. e. the preventing these accidents to the
child, the nurse ought to take great care to keep a good diet, and
to use all things that may cool and temper her milk, that so a fever
may not follow the pain of the teeth. And to prevent the humour
from falling too much upon the inflamed gums, let the child's belly
be kept always loose by gentle clysters, if it be bound; though of-
tentimes there is no need of them, because they are at those times
usually troubled with a looseness, and yet for all that, clysters may
not be improper neither.
As to the other, which is to assist in cutting off the teeth, that the
nurse must do from time to time, molifying and loosening them, by
rubbing them with her finger dipped in butter or honey, to let the
child have a virgin wax candle to chew upon; or anoint the gums
with the mucilage of quince made with mallow water, or with the
brains of a hare; also foment the cheeks with the decoction of Al-
thea, and cammomomile flower and dill, or with the juice of mallows
and fresh butter. If the gums are inflamed, and juice of night-
shade and lettuce. I have already said the nurse ought to keep a
temperate diet. I will now add, that barley broth, water gruel,
raw eggs, prunes, lettuce and endive, are good for her: but let her
avoid salt, sharp, biting, and peppered meats, and wine.
SEC. IX. of the flux of the belly, or looseness in infants.
IT is very common for infants to have the flux of the belly, or
looseness, especially upon the least indisposition; nor is it to be
wondered at seeing their natural moistness contributes so much there-
to: and if it be not extraordinary violent, such are in a better state
of health than those that are bound. This flux, if violent proceeds
from divers cause: as, 1. From breeding teeth, and is then com-
monly attended with a fever; in which the concoction is hindered,


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 75
and the nourishment corrupted. 2. From watching. 3. From pain
4. From stirring of the humours by a fever. Sometimes they have
a flux without breeding of teeth, from outward cold in the guts or
stomach, that obstructs concoction. If it be from teeth it is easily
known, for the signs in breeding of teeth will discover it. If it be
from external cold, there are signs of other causes. If from a hu-
mour flowing from the head, there are signs of a catarrh, and the
excrements are frothy. If crude and raw humours are voided, there
is wind, belching, and phlegmatic excrements. If they be yellow,
green and stink, the flux is from a hot and sharp humour. It is best
in breeding of teeth when the belly is loose, as I have said before;
but if it be too violent, and you are afraid it may end in a consump-
tion, it must be stopped; and if the excrements that are voided be
black, attended with a fever, it is very bad.
The remedy in this case has a principal respect to the nurse, and
the condition of the milk, must chiefly be observed; the nurse must
be cautioned that she eat no green fruit, nor things of a hard con-
coction. If the child suck not, remove the flux with purges, such as
leave a blooding quality behind them: As syrup of honey of roses,
or a clyster. Take the decoction of millium, myrobolans, each two
or three ounces, with an ounce or two of syrup of roses, and make a
clyster. After cleansing, if ft proceed from a hot cause, give syrup
of dried roses, quinces, myrtles coral, mastic, harts-horn, red roses,
or powder of myrtles, with a little Sanguis Draconis.  Also anoint
with oil of roses, myrtles, mastic, each two Drachms, with oil of myr-
tle; and wax, make an ointment. Or, take red roses, moulin, each
a handful, cypress roots, two drachms: make a bag, boil it in red
wine and apply it to the belly. Or, use the plaister of bread or
stomach ointment. If the cause be cold, and the excrements white,
give syrup of mastic, and the quinces, with mint water. Use out-
wardly mint, mastic, cummin: or, take rose seeds an ounce, cummin
and annis-feed, each two drachms; with oil of mastic, wormwood,
and wax, make an ointment.
SECTION X. Of the epilepsy and convulsions in children
THIS is a distemper that is the death of many young children,
and proceeds from the brain first, as when the humours are
bred in the brain that cause it, either from the parents, or from va-
pours, or bad humours that twitch the membranes of the brain; it is
also sometimes caused from other distemper, and from bad diet;
likewise the toothach, when the brain contents, causes it, and so does
a sudden fright. As to the distemper itself, it is manifest, and well
enough known where it is; and as to the cause whence it comes,
you may know by the signs of the disease whether it comes from
bad milk, or worms, or teeth; if these are all absent, it is certain


76 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
that the brain is first affected; if it comes with the small pox or
measles, it ceaseth when they come forth if nature be strong enough.
For the remedy of this grievous and often mortal distemper, give
the following powder to prevent it, to a child as soon as it is born:
Take male piony roots, gathered in the decrease of the moon, a scru-
ple, with leaf gold make a powder; or, take piony roots a drachm,
piony seeds, misletoe of the oak, elk's hoof, man's skull, amber, each
a scruple, musk two grains; make a powder. The best part of the
cure is taking care of the nurse's diet, which must not be disorderly
by any means. If it be from corrupt milk, provoke a vomit, to do
which, hold down the tongue, and put a quill dipped in sweet almonds
down the throat. If it comes from worms give such things as will
kill the worms. If there be a fever respect that also, and give coral
smaraged, and elk's hoof. In the fit give epileptic water, as laven-
der water, and rub with oil of amber, or hang a piony root, elk's
hoof, and smaraged coral, about the neck.
As to a convulsion, it is when the brain labours to cast out that
which troubles it; the matter is in the marrow of the back, and
fountain of the nerves; it is a stubborn disease and often kills.
For the remedy whereof in the fit wash the body, especially the
back bone, with decoction of althæ, lily roots, piony and camms-
mile flowers, and anoin tic with man's and goose grease, oil of worms
orris lilles, turpentine, mastic, storax and calamint. The sun flow-
er is also very good, boiled in water, to wash the child.
THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
PART II.
Containing proper and safe Remedies for the curing of all those
Distempers that are peculiar to the Female Sex, and especi-
ally those that have Obstructions to the bearing of Children.
HAVING finished the first part of this book, and I hope therein
amply made good my promise to the reader. I am now
come to treat of the distemper peculiar to the female sex: in which
it is not my design to enlarge, or to treat of all the distempers they
are incident to, but those only to which they are most subject, when
in a breeding, condition, and that keep them from being so: for
each of which distemper I have laid down such proper and safe re-
medies, as, with the Divine blessing, may be sufficient to repel
them; and since as amongst all the diseases to which human nature 

THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 77
is subject there is none that more diametrically opposes the very
end of our creation, and the design of nature in the formation of
different sexes, and the power thereby given us for the work of ge-
neration, than that of sterility or barrenness, which, where it pre-
vails, renders the most accomplished midwife, but an useless person,
and destroys the design of our book; I think therefore barrenness
is an effect that deserves our first consideration.
CHAP. I.
Of Barrenness; its several Kinds, with proper Remedies against
it; and the Signs of Insufficiency in Men and Women.
SECTION I. Of Barrenness in general.
AS there is no general rule but will admit of some exception
against this, second part; for though I have promised to treat
herein only of diseases peculiar to die female sex, yet this chapter
will engage me to speak of a defect in men, barrenness being an ef-
fect incident to them also; and therefore it is necessary to be hand-
led with respect to men as we make good the proverb, of setting the
saddle on the right horse.
Having premised this, and thereby anticipated an objection, I
shall now proceed to the subject of this chapter, which is barrenness,
Barrenness is either natural or accidental.
Natural barrenness is, when a woman is barren, though the in-
struments of generation are perfect both in herself and husband, and
no preposterous or diabolical course used to cause it; and neither age
nor disease, or any natural defect hindering, and yet the woman re-
mains naturally barren, and conceives not.
Now this may proceed from a natural cause: for if the man and
woman be of one completion, they seldom have children; and the
reason is clear, for the universal course of nature being formed by
the Almighty of a composition of contraries, cannot be increased by
a composition of likes; and therefore if the Constitution of the wo-
man be hot and dry as well as of the man, there can be no concep-
tion; and if, on the contrary, the man should be of a cold and moist
constitution as well as the woman, the effect would be the same;
and this barrenness is purely natural. The only way to help it is
for people before they marry to observe each others constitution and
complexion, if they design to have children. If their complexions
and constitutions be alike, they are not fit to come together, for
the discordant nature barrenness only harmony in the work of ge-
neration.
Another natural cause of barrenHtfs is want of love between the
man And wife. Love is that vital principle that ought to inspire
N 2

78 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
each organ in the act of generation, or else 'twill be but spiritless and
dull; for if their hearts be not united in love, how should their
seed unite to cause conception; and this is evidently evinced in that
there never follows a conception on a rape; therefore if men and
women design to have children, let them live so that their hearts
as well as their bodies may be united, or else they may miss of their
expectations.
A third cause of natural barrenness is virgins letting blood in the
arm before their natural courses are come down, which is usually
in the fourteenth or fifteenth years of their age; sometimes per-
haps before the thirteenth, but never before she twelfth. And be-
cause usually they are out of order and indisposed before their pur-
gations come down, their parents run to the doctor to know what
is the matter, and he straight way opens a vein in the arm, as if it
was fulness of blood which was the cause of offending, and this
makes her well for the present; and when the young virgin hap-
pens to be in the same disorder again, the mother straight runs to
the surgeon, and he directly uses the same remedy: and by these
means the blood is diverted from its proper channel, that it comes
not down the womb as in another woman; and so the womb dries
up, and the woman is forever barren. The way to prevent this is
to let the virgin blood in the arm before her courses come down
well; but if there be occasion, let her blood in the foot: for that
will bring the blood downwards, and by that means provoke the
mentrues to come down.
Another cause of natural barrenness is the debility in copulation;
if persons perform not that act with all the heat and ardour that na-
ture requires, they may as well let it alone, and expect to have
children without it, for frigidity and coldness never produce con-
ception. Of the cure of this we will speak by and by, after I have
spoken of accidental barrenness, which is what is occasioned by some
morbific matter or infirmity of the body, either of the man or the
woman, which being removed, they become fruitful. And since (as
I have before noted) the first and great law of the creation was to
increase and multiply, and barrenness is the direct opposition to the
law, and frustrates the end of our creation; and that it is a great af-
fliction to divers to be without children, and often causes man and
wife to have hard thoughts of one another, each party thinking the
cause not in them. I shall here for the satisfaction of well mean-
ing people, set down, the signs and causes of insufficiency both in
men and women, premising this first, that when people have no chil-
dren, they must not presently blame either party, for neither may
be in fault, but perhaps God sees it not good (for reasons best known
to himself) to give them any; of which we have divers instances in 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 79
history. And tho' the Almighty in the production of nature, works
by natural means, yet where he withholds his blessing, natural
means are ineffectual: for it is the blessing which is the power and
energy by which nature brings forth her productions.
SECTION II. Signs and Causes cf Insufficiency in Men.
ONE cause may be some viciousness in the yard, as if the same
be crooked, or any ligaments thereof distorted or broken,
whereby the ways and passages through which the seed should flow,
come to be stopped or vitiated.
Another cause may be too much weakness of the yard, and ten-
derness thereof, so that it is not strongly enough erected to inject
seed into the womb; for the strength and stiffness of the yard, very
much conduce to conception, by reason of the forcible injection of
the seed.
Also if the stones have received any hurt, so that they cannot
exercise the proper gift in producing seed, or if they be oppressed
with inflammation or tumour, wound or ulcer, or drawn up within
the belly, and not appearing outwardly, these are signs of insuffi-
ciency and causes of barrenness.
Also a man may be barren by reason of the defect of seed; as,
first if he cast forth no seed at all, or less in substance than is need-
ful. Or, secondly, if the seed be vicious, or unfit for generation,
as on the one tide, it happens in bodies that are gross and fat, the
matter of it being defective, and on the other side too much lean-
ness, or continual wasting or consumption of the body, destroys the
seed; nature turning all the matter and substance thereof into nu-
triment of the body.
Too frequent copulation is also one great cause of barrenness in
men; for it attracteth the seminal moisture from the stones before
it is sufficient prepared and concocted; so, it any one by daily
copulation, do exhaust and draw out all the moisture of the seed,
then do the stones draw the moist humours from the superior veins
into themselves; and so having but a little blood in them, they are
forced of necessity to cast it out raw and unconcocted, and thus the
stones are violently deprived of the moisture of their veins, and the
superior veins from all the other parts of the body for their proper
nourishment, thereby depriving the body of its vital spirits. And
therefore no wonder that those that use immoderate copulation are
very weak in their bodies: seeing their whole body is thereby de-
prived of their best and purest blood, and of the spirit, insomuch that
many who have been too much addicted to that pleasure, have kill-
ed themselves in the very act, and therefore it is no wonder if such
unconcocted and undigested seed be unfit for generation.
Gluttony, drunkenness, and the other excesses, do also much hin-
 

80 THE EXPERIENCFD MIDWIFE.
der men from fruitfulness, and make them unfit for generation.
But among other causes of barrenness in men, this also is one
that makes them barren, and almost of the nature of eunuchs, and
that is the incision, or the cutting of their veins behind their ears,
which, in case of distemper, is oftentimes done; for according to
the opinion of most physicians and anatomists, the seed flows from
the brain by those veins behind the ears, more than from any other
part of the body. From whence it is very probable, that the trans-
mission of the seed is hindered by the cutting of the veins behind
the ears, so that it cannot descend at all to the testicles, or come
thither very crude and raw. And thus much for the signs and causes
barrenness of men.
SECTION III. Signs and Causes of Insufficiency, or Barren-
ness in Women.
ALTHOUGH there are many causes of the barrenness of wo-
men, yet the chief and principal are internal, respecting ei-
other the privy parts, the womb, or menstruous blood.
Therefore, Hippocrates saith (speaking of either easy or difficult
conception of women) the first consideration is to be had of their
species, for little women are more apt to conceive than great; slen-
der than gross; white and fair, than ruddy and high coloured; black
than wane; those that have their veins conspicuous are more apt to
conceive than others; but to be very fleshy is evil; to have great
swelled breasts is good.
The next thing to be considered, is the monthly purgations, whe-
ther they have been regular every month, and whether they flow
plentifully, and are of good colour, and whether they have been
equal every month.
Then the womb or place of conception is to be considered, it
ought to be clean, found, dry and soft: not retracted or drawn up:
not prone, nor descending downwards, nor the mouth thereof turned
awry, nor too close shut. But to speak more particularly:
The first parts to be spoken of are the pudenda, or privities, and
the womb; which parts are shut and inclosed, either by nature or
against nature; and from hence such women are called imperfores;
and in some women the mouth of their womb continues compress-
ed, or closed up, from the time of their birth, until the coming
down of their courses, and then, on a sudden, when their terms
press forward to purgation, they are molested with great and unu-
sual pains; some of these break of their own accord, others are dif-
fected and opened by physicians, others never oreak at all, and it
brings death.
And all these Aetius particularly handles, shewing that the womb
is shut three manner of ways, which hinders conception. And the 

THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 81
first is, when the lips of the pudenda grows or cleave together; the
second is, when there are certain membranes growing in the middle
part of the matrix within; the third is, when (tho' the lips and bo-
som of the pudenda may appear fair and open) the mouth of the
womb may be quite shut up; all which are occasion of barrenness
in that they hinder both the use of man, the monthly courses, and
conception.
But among all the causes of barrenness in women, the greatest is
in the womb, which is the field of generation; and if this field be
corrupt, it is vain to expect any fruit, let it be ever so well sown;
for it may be unfit for generation, by reason of many distempers to
which it is subject: as for instance, over-much heat and over-much
cold: for women, whose wombs are too thick and cold, cannot con-
ceive, because cold extinguishes the heat of the human seed. Im-
moderate moisture of the womb also destroys the seed of man,
and makes it ineffectual, as corn sown in ponds and marshes; and
so does over-much dryness in the womb, so the seed perishes for
want of nutriment.  Immoderate heat of the womb is also a cause of
barrenness, for it scorcheth up the seed, as corn sown in the drought
of summer; for immoderate heat hurts all the parts of the body, so
as no conception can live in the woman. And when unnatural la-
bours are engendered, as too much phlegm, tympanies, wind, water,
worms, or any such evil humours abounding contrary to nature, it
causes barrenness; as does all the teams not coming down in due or-
der, as I have already said.
A woman may also have other accidental causes of barrenness (at
least such as may hinder her conception) as sudden frights, anger,
grief and perturbation of the mind: too violent exercises, as leap-
ing, dancing, running after copulation, and the like. But I will
now add some signs by which these things may be known.
If the cause of barrenness: be in the man through over-much heat
in his seed, the woman may easily feel that in receiving it.      
If the nature of the womb be too hot, and so unfit for conception
it will appear by her having her terms very little, and the colour in-
dining to yellowness; she is also very hasty, choleric, and crafty,
her pulse beats very swift, and she is very desirous of copulation.
If you would know whether the defect is in the man or the wo-
man, sprinkle the man's urine upon a lettuce-leaf, and the woman's
upon another, and that which dries away first is unfruitful. Also,
take five wheaten corns, and seven beans, put them into an earthen
pot, and let the party make water therein, if these begin to sprout af-
ter standing seven days, then the party is fruitful, if not, they are
barren, whether it is man or woman. This is a certain sign.
Some make this experiment, of a woman's fruitfulness: They take 


82 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
myrrh, red storax, and some odoriferous things and make a perfume,
which the woman is to receive into the neck of the womb through
a funnel: and if the woman feels the smoke ascend thro' her body
to the nose, then she is fruitful, otherwise not. Some also take gar-
lic and beat it, and cause the woman to lie on her back upon it, and
if she feel the scent thereof to her nose, it is a sign of fruitfulness
Culpepper and others also give a great deal of credit to the fol-
lowing experiment. 
Take a handful of barley, and sleep half of it in the urine of the
man, and the other half in the urine of the woman, for the spice of
twenty-four hours, and then take it out, and set the man's by itself,
and the woman's by itself, in a flowerpot, or some other thing; wa-
ter the man's every morning with his own urine, and the woman's
with hers, and that which grows first, is the most fruitful; and if
one grow not at all, that party is naturally barren.
But now having spoken enough of the disease, it is high time to
assign the cure.                             
If barrenness proceeds from stoppage of the menses, let the woman
sweat, for that opens the parts; and the best way to sweat is in a
hot-house. Then let the womb be strengthened by drinking a
draught of white wine, wherein a handful of stinking arrack, first
bruised, has been boiled. For by a secret magnetic virtue it strength-
ens the womb, and by a sympathetic quality  removes any disease
thereof. To which add also a handful of vervain, which is very
good to strengthen both the womb and head, which are commonly
afflicted together by lympathy. Having used these two or three
days, if they come not down; take of calac, mint, pennyroyal,
thyme, betony, dittany, feverfew, burnet, mugwort, sage, piony
roots, juniper berries, half a handful of each, or so many as can be
got, let all these be boiled in beer, and drank for her ordinary drink.
Take one part of the gentian root, two parts of century, distil
them with ale in analembic, after you have bruised the gentian roots
and infused them well. This water is an admirable remedy to pro-
voke the terms. But if you have not this water, in readiness, take
a drachm of century, and half a dracham of gentian roots bruised,
boiled in posses drink, and drink a draught of it at night going to
bed. Seed of wild navew beaten to powder, and a drachm of it tak-
en in the morning in white wine, also is very good; but if it do not
do, you must be let blood in the legs. And be sure you administer
your medicines a little before the full of the moon, or between a
new and full moon, by no means in the wane of the moon; if you
do, you will find them ineffectual.
If barrenness proceed from the overflowing of the menstrues, then
strengthen the womb, as you were taught, and afterwards anoint


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 83 
the reins of the back with oil of roses, oil of myrtle, oil of quinces,
every night, and then wrap a piece of white baize about your reins,
the cotton side next the skin, and keep the same always to it. But
above all, I recommend this medicine to you. Take comfrey
leaves or roots, and blown woundwort, of each a handful: bruise
them well, and boil them in ale, and drink a good draught of it now
and then: Or, take cinnamon, cassia lignea, opium, of each two
drachms: myrrh, white pepper galbanum, of each one drachm: dis-
solve the gum and opium in white wine and beat the rest into pow-
der; then make it into pills, by mixing them together exactly, and
let the patient take two pills every night going to bed, but let not
the pills exceed fifteen grains.
If barrenness proceed from a flux of the womb, the cure must be
according to the cause producing it, which may be known by its
signs: for a flux of the womb being a continual distillation from it
for a long time together, the colour of what is voided shews what
humour it is that offends: In some it it is red, and that proceeds
from blood purified: in some it is yellow, and that denotes choler;
in others white and pale, and that denotes phlegm. If pure blood
comes out, as if a vein were opened, some corrosin or gnawing of the
womb is to be feared. All those are known by these signs:
The place of conception is continually moist with the humours,
the face is ill coloured, the party loaths meat, and breathes with
difficulty, the eyes are much swollen, which is sometimes without
pain. If the offending humour be pure blood, then you must let
blood in the arm, and the cephalic vein is fittest to draw back the
blood, and then let juice of plaintain and comfrey be injected into
the womb. If phlegm be the cause, let cinnamon be used in all her
meats and drinks, and let her take a little Venice treacle or mithri-
date every morning. Let her boil burnet, mugwort, featherfew
and vervain, in all her broths. Also, half a drachm of myrrh taken
every morning, is an excellent remedy against this malady. If cho-
ler be the cause, let her take burage, bugloss, and roses, endive, and
succory roots, lettuce, and white poppy seed, each an handful; boil
these in white wine till one half be wasted; let her drink half a
pint every morning, to which add syrup of peach flowers, and syrup
of chicony, of each an ounce, with a tittle rhubarb, and this will
gently purge her. If it proceeds from purified blood, let her be
blooded in the foot, and then strengthen the womb as I have direct-
ed in stopping of the menses.
If barrenness be occasioned by the falling out of the womb, as
sometimes happens, let her apply sweet scents to her nose, such as
civit, galbum, ftorax, calamitis, wood of aloes and other things of
that nature; and let her lay stinking things to the womb, such as


84 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFF.
assafœtida, oil of amber, or of the smoke of her own hair burnt; for
this a certain truth, that the womb flies from all stinking; and
cleaves to all sweet things. But the most infallible cure is this,
Take a commen burdock leaf. (which you may keep dry all the
year) apply this to her head, and it will draw the womb upwards.
In fits of the mother apply it to the soles of her feet, and it will
draw the womb downwards. Burseed beaten into powder draws
the womb which way you please according as it is applied.
If barrenness proceed from a hot cause, let the party take whey,
and clarify it; then boil plantain leaves and roots in it, and drink it
for her ordinary drink. Let her also inject the juice of plantain into
the womb with a syringe; it it be in winter when you cannot get the
juice, make a strong decoction of the leaves and roots in water, and
inject that up with a syringe; but let it be but blood warm, and you
will find this medicine of great efficacy. And further, take often
conserve of roses, cold lozenges made of tragacanth, the confections
of traifantali, frequently smell camphire, rose water and saunders.
It is also good to bleed the balilica, or liver vein, and take four or
five ounces of blood, and then use this purge. Take electuarum de
epithimo, de focco rosarum, of each two drains and a half, clarified
whey four ounces; mix them well together and take it in the morn-
ing fasting; sleep after it about an hour and an half, and fast four
hours after it. And, about an hour before you eat any thing drink
a good draught of whey; Also, take lily water four ounces, man-
drogory one ounce, saffron half a scruple; beat the saffron to powder
and mix it with the waters, and drink them warm in the morning.
Use this eight days together.
Some excellent Remedies against Barrenness, find to cause Fruit-
fullness. 
TAKE broom flowers, smallage, parsley seed, cummin, mug-
worth, fetherfew, of each half a scruple; aloes, half an ounce;
India salt, saffron, of each half a dram; beat and mix them well to-
gether, and put to it  five, ounces of featherfew water warm, stop it
up close, and let it stand and dry in a warm place, and thus do two
or three times one after another; them make each dram into six pills,
and take one of them every other day before supper.
For a purging medicine against barrenness: Take conserve of be-
nedicta lax, one quarter of an ounce; dipsillo three drams; electua-
ry de succo rosarum, one dram; mix them together with featherfew
water and drink it in the morning betimes. About three days after
the patient hath taken the purge, let her be let blood four or five
ounces in the median or common black vein in the right foot; and
then take, for five days one after another, filed ivory a dram and a
half in featherfew water; and during the time let her sit on the fol-


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 85
lowing bath an hour together morning and night: take wild yellow
rapes, daucus, balsam wood and fruit, ashkeys, of each two handfuls;
red and white been, broom flowers, of each a handful; musk three
grains, amber, saffron, of each one scruple; boil all in water suffi-
ciently; but the musk, saffron, amber, and broom flowers, must be
put in the decoction after it is boiled and strained.
A confection very good against barrenness: Take pistachio, pingles,
cringoes, of each half an ounce, saffron one dram, lignum aloes, gal-
lingade, mace, balm flowers, red and white been, each four scruples;
shaven ivory, cassia bark, each two scruples; syrup of confected gin-
ger twelve ounces, white sugar six ounces; decoct all these well to-
gether in twelve ounces of balm water, and stir it well together; then
put to it musk and amber each a scruple: take thereof the quantity
of a nutmeg three times a day, in the morning, an hour before noon,
and an hour after supper.
But if the cause of barrenness either in man or woman be thro'
scarcity or dimunition of the natural feed, then such things are to
be taken as do increase the feed, and incite or stir up to venery, and
further conception, which I shall here set down, and conclude this
chapter of barrenness.
For this, yellow rape seed baked in bread is very good; also young
fat flesh not too much salted; also saffron, the snails stincus, and long
pepper prepared in wine. But avoid sour, sharp, doughy and slimy
meats, long sleep after meat, with surfeiting and drunkenness, and
as much as they can, keep themselves from sorrow.
These things following increase the natural feed and stir up vene-
ry, and recover the feed again when it is lost, viz. eggs, milk, rice
boiled in milk, sparrow's brains, flesh, bones and all; the bones and
pizzles of bulls, bucks, rams, and bears; also cock stones, lamb stones
partridges, quails, and pheasants eggs; for this is an undeniable a-
phorism, that whatever any creature is addicted unto, they move or
incite the woman or man that eats them to the like; and therefore
partridges, quails, sparrows, &c. being extremely addicted to venery,
they work the same effect in those men and women that eat them.
Also take notice that in what parts of the body the facultity which
you would strengthen lies, take the same parts of another creature,
in whom the faculty is strong as a medicine. As for instance, the
procreative faculty lies in the testicles, therefore cock stones, lamb
stones, &c. are proper to stir up venery. I will also give you another
general rule: all creatures that are fruitful being eaten, make them
fruitful that eat them: as crabs, lobsters, prawns, pigeons; &c. The
stones of a fox dried and beaten to powder, and a drachm taken in
the morning in sheap's milk, and the stones of a boar taken in the
like manner, are very good. The heart of a mail quail carried a 
O




86 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
bout the man, and the heart of a female quail carried about the wo-
man, causeth natural love and fruitfulness. Let them also that
would increase their seed, eat and drink of the best as near as they
can: for since cerere et libero frigit Venus, is an old proverb, which
is, Without good meat and good drink, Venus will be frozen to
death.
Pottages are good to increase the seed, such as are made of
beans, peace and lupines, and mix the rest with sugar. French
beans, wheat sodden in broth, annis seeds, also onions stewed, gar-
licks, leeks, yellow rapes, fresh bugwort roots, oringe roots confec-
ted, ginger confected, &c. Of fruits; hazel nuts, cypress nuts,
pistachia almonds, and marmapune made thereof. Spices good to
increase seed, are cinnamon, cardanum, galengal, long pepper, cloves,
ginger, saffron, assafœtida, take a dram and a half in good wine, is
very good for this purpose.
The weakness and debility of a man's yard being a great hin-
drance to procreation, let him to strengthen it, use the following
ointments: Take wax, oil of bevercod, marjoram gentle, add oil
of costus, of each a like quantity, mix it into an ointment, and put
to it a little musk, and with it anoint the yard, cods, &c. Take of
house emmets three drams, oil of white sefanum, oil of lilies of
each an ounce; pound and bruise the ants, and put them to the oil,
and let them stand in the sun six days, then strain out the oil, and
add to it euphorbium one scruple, pepper and rue, of each one dram;
mustard feed half a dram. Set this again all together in the fun
two or three days, then anoint the instruments of generation there-
with. So much for this chapter.
CHAP. II.
Diseases of the Womb.
I HAVE already said, that the womb is the field of generation,
and if this field be corrupted, it is in vain to expect any fruit,
though it be never so well sown; it is therefore not without reason
that I intend in this chapter to set down the several distemper to
which the womb is obnoxious, and proper and safe remedies against
them.
SECTION I. Of the hot Distemper of the Womb.
THIS distemper consists in the excels of heat; for the heat of
the womb is necessary for conception, but if it be too much,
it nourisheth not the seed, but disperseth its heat, and hinders the
conception: this preternatural heat is sometimes from the birth, and
makes them barren; but, if it be accidental, it is from hot causes
that bring the heat and the blood to the womb: it arises also from
internal and external medicines, and from too much hot meat, drinks
and exercise. Those that are troubled with this distemper, have 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 87
but few courses, and those yellow, black, burnt or sharp, and have
hair betimes on their privities; they are very prone to lust, and are
subject to the head ach, and abound with choler. And when the
distemper is strong upon them, they have but few terms, and out
of order, being bad and hard to flow, and in time they become hy-
pochondriacs, and for the most part barren, having sometimes a fren-
zy of the womb.
The remedy is to use coollers, so that they offend not the ves-
sels that must be open for the flux of the terms. Therefore inward-
ly use coolers, such as succory, endive, violets, water lilies, sorrel,
lettuce, sanders, and syrups and conserves made thereof. Also take
conserve of succory, violets, water lilies, burrage, each an ounce;
conserve of roses half an ounce, diamartagon frigid, diatriascantal,
each half a dram; and with syrup of violets, or juice of citrons,
make an electuary. For outward applications, make use of oint-
ment of roses, violets, water lilies, gourds, Venus-narvel applied to
the back and loins.
Let the air he cool, her garments thin, and her meat endive, let-
tuce, succory and barley. Give her no hot meats, nor strong wine,
unless mixed with water. Rest is good for her, but she must abstain
from copulation, though she may sleep as long as she will.
SECTION II. Of the cold Distemper of the Womb.
THIS distemper is the reverse of the foregoing, and equally
an enemy to generation, being coursed by cold quality abound-
ing to excess, and proceeds from too cold air, rest, idleness and cool-
ing medicines. It may be known by an avesion to letchery, and
taking no pleasure in the act of copulation, when they spend their
seed. Their terms are phlegmatic, thick, and  slimy, and do not
flow as they should. The womb is windy, and the feed crude and
waterish. It is the cause of obstructions and barrenness, and is hard
to be cured.
For the cure of this distemper, use this water: Take galengal,
cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, each two drams; ginger cubebs,
zedory, cardamum, each an ounce; grains of Paradise, long pep-
per, each half an ounce: beat them and put them into six quarts of
wine for eight days; then add sage, mint, balm, motherwort, each
three handfuls. Let them stand eight days more, then pour off the
wine, and beat the herbs and the spices, and then pour on the wine,
and distil them Or you may use this: Take cinnamon, nutmegs,
cloves, mace, ginger cubebs, cardamums, grains of Paradise, each
an ounce and an half, galengal six drams, of long, pepper half an
ounce, zedory five drams, bruise them, and add six quarts of wine;
put them into a cellar for nine days, daily stirring them: then add
ƒ mint two handfuls, and then let them stand for fourteen days; 


88 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
pour off the wine and bruise them, and then pour on the wine again,
and distil them. Also anoint with oil of lilies, rue, angelica, bays
cinnamon, cloves, mace, and nutgegs. Let her diet and air be
warm, her meat of easy concoction, seasoned with annis seed, fennel,
and thyme, and let her avoid raw fruits and milk diets.
SECTION III. Of the Inflation of the Womb.
THE inflation of the womb is the stretching of it by wind, call-
ed by some a windymole, the wind proceeding from a cold
matter, whether thick or thin, contained in the veins of the womb,
by which the weak heat thereof is overcome, and it either flows
thither from other parts, or is gathered there by cold meats or drinks:
cold air may be a procuring cause of it also, as lying-in women are
exposed to it. The wind is contained either in the cavity of the
vessels of the womb, or between the tunicles, and it may be known
by a swelling in the region of the womb, which sometimes reaches
to the navel, loins, and diaphragma: and it rises and abates as the
wind increaseth or decreaseth It differs from the dropsy, in that it
never swells so high; and that neither the physician nor midwife
may take it for conception, let them observe the signs of women
with child laid down in the first part of the book; and if one sign be
wanting, they may suspect it to be an inflation, of which this is a
farther sign, that in conception the swelling still increaseth ; also,
if you strike on the belly in an inflation, there will be a noise, but
not so in case there be a conception. It also differs from a mole,
because in that there is a weight and hardness in the belly; and
when they move from one side to another, they feel a weight which
is moving; but not so in this. If the inflation be without the ca-
vity of the womb, the pain is greater and more extensive, nor is
there any noise, because the wind is  more pent up.
This distemper is neither of any long continuance, nor dangerous,
if looked after in time, and if it be in the cavity of the womb, is
more easily expelled. To which purpose give her diaphonicon, with
a little castor and sharp clysters that expel wind. If this distemper
happens to a woman in travail, let her not pure after delivery, nor
bleed, because it is from a cold matter; but it it come after child-
bearing, and her terms come down sufficiently, and that she has ful-
ness of blood, let the sephæna rein be opened; after which, let her
take the following electuary: take conserve of betony, rosemary,
of each an ounce and an half: candied eringoes, citron peels can-
died, each half an ounce, diacimium, galengal, each a dram, oil of
annis seeds six drops, and with syrup of cytrons make an electuary.
For outward applications, make a cataplasm of rue, mugwort, ca-
momile, dill, calamints, new pennyroyal; thyme, with oil of rue,
keir, and camomile; and let the following clysters, to expel wind 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 89  
e put into the womb: Take agnus, castus, rue, calamint, each an
handful; annis seed, castus, cinnamon, each two drachms, boi
them in wine to half a pint. She may likewise use sulphur, baths,
and spaw waters, both inward and outward, because they expel wind.
SECTION IV. Of the Dropsy of the Womb.
THIS is another morbifick effect of the womb, proceeding from
water, as that before mentioned did from wind, by which the
belly is so swelled, that it deceives many, causing them to think
themselves with child when indeed they are not. This is an unnatu-
ral swelling raised by the gathering together of waters, from mois-
ture mixed with the terms, and an evil sanguification from the liver
and spleen; also by immoderate drinking, or eating af crude meats;
all which causing a repletion, do suffocate the native heat: It may
also be caused by overflowing of the courses, or by any other immo-
derate evacuation. The signs of this distemper are the lower parts
of the belly, with the privities puffed up and pained: the feet swell,
the natural colour of the face decays: the appetite is departed;
the terms also are fewer, and cease before their time; her breasts
are also soft, but without milk. This is distinguished from a gene-
ral dropsy, in that the lower parts of the belly are more swelled;
neither does the sanguificative faculty appear so hurtful, nor the u-
rine so pale, nor the countenance so soon changed, neither are the
superior parts so extenuated, as in a general dropsy. But yet this
distemper foretels the total ruin of the natural functions, by that
singular content the womb hath with the liver, and therefore an
evil habit of body or a general dropsy will follow. 
For the cure of this empire, first mitigate the pain with fomenta-
tions, of mellilot, mallows, lintseed; cammomile, and althæ, then
let the humour be prepared with syrup of stoeshus, calamint, mug-
wort, both sorts, with the distilled waters or decoctions of dodder,
majorum, sage, oringe, speerage, pennyroyal, and betony; and let
her purge with senna, agarick, rhubarb, and eliterian. Take cale-
mints, mugwort, lovage roots, pennyroyal, each an handful; savil a
pugil; madder roots, angelica, of each an ounce; boil them in
water, and sweeten them with sugar. Or, if she likes it better,
make broths of the same. Also take specirem diambree, diamesc-
dulcus, diacalamenty, diacinnimoni, diacimini, troce de myrrh, of
each two drachms, sugar one pound; with betony make lozenges,
and let her take of them two hours before meals. Apply also to
the bottom of the belly, as hot as can be endured, a little bag of
camomile, cummin, and mellilot, boiled in oil, of rue; and anoint
the belly and privities with unguentum Agrippæ, mingling there-
with oil of Iroes. Let the lower parts of the belly, be covered
O 2 
 

90 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
with a plaister of bay-berries, or with a cataplasm made of cummin,
camomile and briony roots, adding thereto cows, and goats dung. For
injection into the womb, take asarum roots three drachms, penny-
royal, calamint, each half a handful, savin a pugil, mechoacan a
drachm: annis-seed, cummin, each half a drachm. Boil them and
take six ounces strained, with oil of elder and orris, each an ounce;
and inject it into the womb by a metrenchita; let the air be hot
and dry. Moderate exercise may be allowed, but much sleep is
forbidden. She may eat the flesh of partridges, larks, chickens,
mouutain birds, hares, conies, &c. and drink wine mixed with a
little water.
SECTION V. Of the inflammation of the Womb.
THIS is a tumour possessing the womb, accompanied with
unnatural heat, by obstruction, and gathering together of cor-
rupt blood; for the blood that comes to the womb, gets out of the
vessels into its substance and grows hot, putrefies, and causeth an
inflammation, either all over, or in part, before or behind, above or
below. This happens also by suppression of the menstruate, reple-
tion of the whole body, immoderate copulation, often handling of
the genitals, difficult child-birth, vehement agitation of the body,
or by falls or blows. The signs of this inflammation are tumours
with heat and pain in the region of the womb, stretching and heavi-
ness in the privities, also a pain in the head and stomach, with vo-
miting coldness of the knees, convulsions of the neck, doting, trem-
bling, of the heart: and sometimes straitness of breath by reason of
heat which is communicated to the diaphragma, or midriff; and
the breasts sympathizing with  the womb, are pained and swelled;
but more particularly, if the fore part of the matrix be inflamed,
the privities are grieved, and the urine is suppressed, or flows forth
with difficulty; if it be behind, the loins and back suffer, and the
belly is bound: if the inflammation be in the bottom of the womb,
the pain is towards the navel; if the neck of the womb be affected,
the midwife, putting up her finger, may feel the mouth of it re-
tracted, and closed up, with a hardness about it. As to the prog-
nosticks of it, all inflammations of the womb are dangerous and
sometimes deadly, especially if it be all over the womb; if the wo-
man be with child she rarely escapes, an abortion follows, and the
mother dies.
As to the cure: first, Let the humours flowing to the womb be
repelled; for the affecting of which after the belly hath been open-
ed by the cooling clysters, letting of blood will be needful: open-
therefore a vein in the arm, but have a care of bleeding in the foot,
lest thereby you draw more blood to the womb, but if it be from the
terms stopt, you may. The opinion of Galen is, that the blood 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 91 
may be diverted by bleeding in the arm, or cupping the breasts, and
that it may be by opening an ancle vein, and cupping upon the lips.
Then purge gently with cassia, rhubarb, senna, and mirobolans thus,
Take senna two drachms, annis-seed one scruple, mirobolans half an
ounce, barley water a sufficient quantity; make a decoration, dis-
solve it in syrup of succory, with rhubarb two ounces, pulp of cas-
sia half an ounce, oil of annis-seed two drops and make a potion.
At the beginning of the disease anoint the privities and reins with
oil of roses and quinces. Make plaisters of plantain, lint seed,
barley meal, mellilot, fenugreek, and white of eggs; and if the pain
be vehement, add a little opium. For repellers and anodynes take
Venus navel, purslain, lettuce, housleek, vine leaves, each a hand-
ful, boil them in wine; barley meal two ounces, pomegranate flow-
ers two drachms, boil a drachm with oil of roses, and mak a poul-
tice. Or take diacibilou simple two ounces, juice of Venus navel,
and plantain each half an ounce; take of fenugreek, mallow roots,
decocted figs, lint seed, barley meal, dove's dung, turpentine, each
three drachms; deer's suet half a drachm, opium half a scruple, and
with wax make a plaister. After it it is ripe break it by motion of
the body, coughing, freezing, or else by cupping and pessaries; as,
Take rhue half a handful, figs an ounce, pigeon's dung, orris roots,
each half a drachm; with wool, make pessary. After it is brok-
en, and the pains abate, then cleanse and heal the ulcer with such
cleansers as these, viz. Whey, barley water, honey, wormwood,
smallage, orris, birthwort. myrrh, turpentine, allum: Take new milk
boiled a pint, honey half a pint, orris powder half an ounce, and use
it very often every day. If it break about the bladder, use an e-
mulsion of cold seeds, whey, and syrup of violets. Let her drink
barley water, or clarified whey, and her meat be chickens, and chick-
en broth, boiled with endive, succory, sorrel, buglos and mallows.
SECTION VI. Of Schirrosity and hardness of the Womb.
A SWELLING in the womb neglected, or not perfectly cur-
ed, often produces a schirrosity in the matrix, which is a hard
insensible, unnatural swelling, causing barrenness, and begetting an
indisposition of the whole body. The immediate cause is a thick,
earthy humour (as natural melancholy, for instance) gathered in
the womb, and causing a schirrous without inflammation. It is a
proper schirrous when there is neither sense nor pain, and it is an
improper schirrous when there is some little sense and pain. This
distemper is most usual in women of a melancholy constitution, and
also such as have been cleansed from their menses, or from the re-
tention of the loohia, or after purgings; it is likewise sometimes
caused by eating corrupt meat; or those inordinate longings called
pica, to which breeding women are often subject; and lastly, it may


92 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
also proceed from obstructions and ulcers in the womb, or some e-
vil effects in the liver and spleen. It may be known by these signs;
If the effect be in the bottom of the womb, she feels as it were a
heavy burden representing a mole, yet differing, in that the breasts
are attenuated, and the whole body also. If the neck of the womb
be hardened, no outward humours will appear, the mouth of it is re-
tracted, and touched with the finger, feels hard: nor can she have
the company of a man without great pains and prickings. This
schirrosity or hardness is (when confirmed) incurable, and will turn
into a cancer, or dropsy: and ending in a cancer, proves deadly;
the reason of which is, because the native heat in those parts being
almost smothered, it is hardly to be restored again.
For the cure of this, first prepare the humour with syrup of bur-
rage, succory, epicymum, and clarified whey; which being done,
take of these pills following according to the strength of the patient:
take hicra-picra, six drachms and a half; agarick, lapislazuli, abluti
falls Indœ, coloquintida, of each one drachm and a half; mix them,
and make pills. The body being purged, proceed to molify the
hardness as followeth; anoint the  privities and the neck of the
womb with the following ointment: take oil of capers, lilies, sweet
almonds, jessamin, each one ounce; mucilage, fenugreek, althæ,
ointment of althæ each six drachms; amoniacum dissolved in wine,
an ounce, which with wax make into an ointment. Then apply
below the navel diachilon fernelli; and make emulsions of figs,
mugwort, mallows, pennyroyal, althæ, fennel roots, mellilot, fenu-
greek, and lintseed boiled in water; but for injection, take bdelli-
um dissolved in wine, oil of sweet almonds, lillies, camomile, each
two ounces, marrow of veal bones, and hen's grease, each an ounce
with the yolk of an egg. The air must be temperate; and as for
her diet, let her abstain from all gross, viscious and salt meats, such
as pork, fish, old cheese, &c.
SECTION VII. Of the straitness of the Womb and its vessels.
THIS being seated in the vessels of the womb, and neck there-
of is an obstruction to the bearing of children, as it hinders
both the flowing of the menses and conception. The cause of this
straitness is thick and tough humours that stop the mouth of the
veins and arteries; these humours, are bred of gross or too much
nourishment: when the heat of the womb is so weak that it can-
not attenuate the humour which, by reason thereof, either flow from
the whole body, or are gathered into the womb. Now, the vessels
are made closer or straiter several ways; sometimes by inflamma-
tions, schirrous, or other humours; sometimes by compression, or
by a scar, or flesh, or membrane, that grows after the wound. The
signs by which this is known, are stoppage of the terms, not con-

THE EXPERIENCED MlDWIEE. 93
ceiving, crudities abounding in the body, which are known by par
ticular signs; for if there was a wound, or the secundine was pulled
out by force, phlegm comes from the wound. If stoppage of the
terms be from an old obstruction by humours, it is hard to be cured;
if it is only from the disorderly use of astringents, it is more cura-
ble; if it be from a schirrous, or other tumours that compress or
close the vessels, the disease is incurable.
For the cure of that which is curable, obstructions must be taken
away, phlegm must be purged, and she must be let blood, as will be
hereafter directed in the stoppage of the terms. Then use the fol-
lowing medicines: Take of annis-seed and fennel-seed, each a dram;
rosemary, pennyroyal, calamint, betony flowers, each an ounce;
cestus, cinnamon, galengal, each half on ounce; saffron half a
drachm, with wine. Or, take aspargus roots, parley roots, each an
ounce: pennyroyal, calamints, each a handful; wallflowers, dill
flowers, each two pugils; boil, strain, and add syrup of mugwort, an
ounce and a half. For a fomentation, take pennyroyal, mercury,
calamint, marjoram, mugworth, each two handfuls; sage, rosema-
ry, bays, camomile-flowers, each an handful; boil them in water,
and foment the groin and bottom of the belly, or let her sit up to the
navel in a bath, and then anoint about the groin with oil of rhue,
lillies, dill, &c.
SECTION VIII. Of the falling of the womb.
THIS is another evil effect of the womb, which is both very
troublesome, and also a hindrance to conception. Sometimes
the womb falleth to the middle of the thighs, nay, almost to the
knees, and it may be known then by its hanging out, Now that
which causeth the womb to change its place, is when the ligaments
by which it is bound to the other parts are not in order; for there
are four ligaments, two above, broad and membraneous, that come
from the peritoneum, and two below that are nervous round and
hollow; it is also bound by the great vessels by veins and arteries,
and to the back by nerves. Now the place is changed when it is
drawn another way, or when the ligaments are loose, and it falls
down by its own weight. It is drawn on one side when the menses
are hindered from flowing, and the veins and arteries are full, namely
those which go to the womb. If it be a mole on one side and, the
spleen cause it; by the liver veins on the right side, and the spleen
on the left, as they are more or less filled. Others are of opinion it
comes from the solution of connection of the fibrous neck, and the
parts adjacent, and that from the weight of the womb descending.
This we deny not; but the ligaments must be loose or broken. But
women in a dropsy could not be said to have the womb fallen down,
if it came only from looseness: but in them it is caused by the salt- 


94 THE EXPFRIENCED MIDWIFE.
ness is of the water, which drys more than it moistens. Now, if there
be a little tumour within or without the privities, it is nothing else
but a descent of the womb; but if there be a tumour like a goose-
egg, and a hole at the bottom, there is at first a great pain in the parts
to which the womb is fastened, as the loins, the bottom of the belly,
and the os sacrum, which proceeds from the breaking or stretching
of the ligaments, but a little after the pain abates; and there is an im-
pediment in walking; and sometimes blood comes from the breach
of the vessels, and the excrements and urine are stopt, and then a
fever and a convulsion ensueth, and oftentimes prove mortal, especi-
allv if it happen to women with child.
For the cure of this distemper, first cut it up before the air alter
it, or it be swollen or inflamed; and therefore first of all give a
clyster to remove the excrement; then lay her on her back, with
her legs abroad, and thighs lifted up, and head down; then take the
humour in your hand, and thrust it in without violence; If it be
swelled by alteration and cold, foment it with the decoction of mal-
lows, althæ, line, fenugreek, camomile-flowers, bay-berries, and a-
noint it with oil of lillies and hen's greese. If there be an inflam-
mation, do not put it up, but fright it in, by putting red-hot iron be-
fore it, and making a shew as if you intended to burn it; but sprin-
kle upon it the powder of maflick, frankincense, and the like: Take
frankincense, moslich each two drams ;  farcecol steeped in milk, a
dram; mummy, pomegranate flower, sanguis draconis, each half a
dram: when it is put up, let her lie with her legs stretched, and one
upon the other, for eight or ten days, and make a pessary in the form
of a pear, with a cork or spunge, and put it into the womb, dipped in
sharp wine, or juice of acacia, with powder of sanguis, galbanum,
bdellium. Also apply a cupping glass with great flame under the naval
or paps, or to both kidneys, and lay this plaister to the back: Take
opoponix two ounces, storax liquid half an ounce, mastich frankin-
cense, pitch, bole, each two dram; then with wax make a plaister;
of laudanum a dram and a half, mastich, and frankincense, each half
a dram, wood aloes, cloves, spikes, each a dram; ash coloured am-
ber-grease four grains, musk half a scruple; make two round plais-
ters to be laid on each side of the naval; make a fume of snail skins
silted, or of garlic, and let it be taken in the funnel. Use also astrin-
gent fomentations of bramble leaves, plantain, horsetail, myrtles,
each two handfuls, wormseed two pugils, pomegranate flowers half
an ounce, boil them in wine and water. For an injection take com-
frey roots an ounce, rupture wort two drams, yarrow, mugwort each
half an ounce, boil them in red wine and inject it with a syringe.
To strengthen the womb, take hartshorn, bays, of each a dram,
myrrh half a dram; make a powder for two doses, and give it with 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 95
sharp wine. Or, Take zedoary, parsnip seed, crabs-eyes prepared,
each a drain; nutmeg half a dram, and give a dram in powder: but
astringents must be used with great caution, least by stopping the
courses a worse mischief follow. To keep it in its place, make
rollers and ligatures as for the rupture; and put pessaries into the
bottom of the womb, that may force it to remain. I know some
physicians object against this, and say they hinder conception; but
others in my opinion, much more justly affirm, that they neither
hinder conception, nor bring any inconvenience; nay, so far from
that, they help conception, and retain it, and cure the disease per-
fectly. Let the diet be such as is of drying, astringent, & glewing
qualities, such as rice, starch, quinces, pears, and green cheese: but
let summer fruits be avoided, and let her wine be astringent and red.
CHAP. III.
Of Diseases relating to Women's Monthly Courses.
SECTION I. Of Women's Monthly Courses in general.
DIVINE Providence, who, with a wisdom worthy of himself,
has appointed woman to conceive by coition with the man, and
to bear and bring forth children, has provided for the nourishment
of children during their recess in the womb of their mother, by that
redundancy of the blood which is natural to all women, and which
flowing out at certain periods of time (when they are not pregnant)
are from thence called terms and menses from their monthly flux of
excrementitious and unprofitable blood; which is only to be under-
stood with respect to the redundancy thereof, being an excrement
only with respect to its quantity, for as to its quality it is as pure and
incorrupt as any blood in the veins ; and this appears from the final
cause of it, which is the propagation and conservation of mankind;
and also from the generation of it, it being the superfluity of the last
aliment of the fleshy parts. If any ask, If the menses be not of a
hurtful quality, how can it have such venomous effects, as if it fall
upon trees and herbs, it makes the one barren, and mortifies the
other? I answer, This malignity is contracted in the womb; for the
woman wanting native heat to digest this superfluity, sends it to the
matrix, where seating itself till the mouth of the womb be dilated,
it becomes corrupt and mortified, which may easily be, considering
the heat and moistness of the place; and so this blood being out of
its proper vessels, and too long retained, offends hi quality. But if
rigidity be the cause why women cannot digest all their last nou-
rishment, and by consequence have these monthly purgations, how
comes it to pass, may some say, that they are of so cold a constitu-
tion more than man? Of this I have already spoken in the chapter
of barrenness; It is chiefly thus: The Author of our being has laid
an injunction upon men and women to propagate their kind, hath 


96 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
also wisely fitted them for that work; and seeing that in the act of
coition there must be an agent and a patient (for if they be of one
constitution, there can be no propagation) therefore the man is hot
and dry, and the woman cold and moist. It is therefore necessary
that the woman should be of a cold Constitution, because in her is
required a redundancy of matter for the nourishment of the infant
depending on her. And this is wisely ordained by nature, for other-
wise the child would detract from and weaken the principal parts of
the mother; which would most unnaturally render the provision
of the infant to be the destruction of the parent. Now, these month-
ly purgations usually begin about the 14th year, and continue till
the 46th or 50th year: yet not so constantly, but that oftentimes
there happens a suppression, which is sometimes natural, and some-
times morbifical. When they are naturally supprest, it is either in
breeding women, or such as give suck; but that which is morbi-
fical, must be the subject of the following subject.
SECTION II. Of the Suppression of the Monthly Courtesy.
THE suppression of the terms, which is morbific, is an intercep-
tion of that accustomary evacuation of blood which should
come from the matrix every month, and which proceeds from the
matter vitiated The cause of this suppression is either internal or
external: The internal cause is either instrumental or material, in
the blood or in the womb. The blood may be faulty two ways, in
quantity or quality; in quantity, when it is so consumed that
there is no overplus left, as in vigaroes, and all virile women, who
through their heat and strength of nature digest and consume all
their best nourishment; but women of this constitution are rather
to be accounted anthropophageæ, that is women eaters, than women
breeders; because they consume one of the principles of genera-
tion, which gives a being to the world, i. e. the menstruous blood.
The blood may also be consumed, and the terms stayed, by too
much bleeding at the nose, and likewise by a flux of the hemorr-
hoides, or by a dysenteria, evacuations, chronical and continued dis-
eases. But secondly, the matter may be vicious in quality, as if it
be sanguineous phlegmatical, melancholic; each of these, if they of-
fend in grossness, will cause an obstruction in the veins.
The womb also may be in fault divers ways; as by the narrow-
ness of the veins and passages, by aposthumes, tumours, ulcers, and
by overmuch heat or cold, the one vitiating the action, and the o-
ther consuming the matter; also, by an evil composition of the ute-
rine parts by the neck of the womb being turned aside; and some-
times, though but rarely, by a membrane or excrescence of flesh
growing about the womb.
The external cause may be heat, or dryness of the air, immode-
              

THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 97
late watching, great labour, violent motion, whereby the mattet is
so consumed, and the body is so exhausted, that there is no redun-
dant blood remaining to be expelled; whence it is recorded of the
Amazons, that being active, and always; in motion, they had little
or no monthly fluxes, it may also be caused from cold; and most
frequently is so, making the blood vicious and gross, condensing and
binding the passages, that it cannot flow forth. The signs of the
disease are pains in the head, neck, back, and loins, with weariness
of the whole body, but especially of the hips and legs, by reason of
a confinity which the womb hath in those parts; if the suppression
proceeds from cold, it causeth a heavy sluggish disposition, a pale
colour, a slow pulse, the urine crude, waterish, and much in quan-
tity, and no desire to copulation, the excrements of the guts being
usually retained: but if it proceeds from heat, the signs are contra-
ry. If it be natural, or caused by conception, it may be known by
drinking water and honey after suppers, going to bed; for if after
the taking it it causeth the woman to feel a bearing pain about the
navel and lower parts of the belly, it is a sign she hath conceived,
and the suppression is natural, if not, then it is vicious, and ought
medicinally to be taken away, otherwise many dangerous diseases
will follow, such as swooning, faintings, intermission of pulse,
obstructions, epilepsies, apoplexes, frenzies, melancholly, passions,
&c. which makes it highly necessary to say something now of the
cure.
The cure of this distemper must be by evacuation, for this sup-
pression is a phlethorick effect, it will therefore be best in the midst
of the menstrual period to open the liver vein: and for the rever-
sion of the humour two days before the wonted evacuation, open
the saphæna veins of both feet: and if the repletion be nor great,
apply cupping glasses to the legs and thigs, after letting blood, the
humour must be prepared and made flexible with syrup of flæchus,
horehound, hysop, betony, maden hair, of each one handful, make a
decoction, and take thereof three ounces of syrup of mugwort,
succory, maiden hair, mix each half an ounce; and after she comes
out of the bath, let her drink it off. Then purge pil. de Agarick,
Elephang, Coch; Fædit. Galen in this case commends Pilula de
Hiera cum caloquint da; for as they are proper to purge the hu-
mour offending, so they open the passage of the womb. If the sto-
mach be overcharged, let her take a vomit, but let it be so prepar-
ed as to act both ways, lest the humours should be too much turned
back by working only upwards; to which end, take trockisk of a-
garia two drachms, infuse them in three ounces of ox mel, in which
dissolve benedict. laxat. half an ounce, and of the electuary diasa-


98 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
ram one scruple; and let her take it after the manner of a purge. When
the humour has been thus purged, you may proceed to more proper and for-
cible remedies. Take extract of mugwort one scruple and a half, rinds of
cassia, parsley seed, castor, of each a scruple; and with juice of smallage, af-
ter supper going to bed. Also, administer to the lower parts suffumigations
of amber, unctions, inlections and incessions; make suffmigations of amber,
galbanum, melanthum, bay-berries, mugwort, cinnamon, nutmegs, cloves,
&c. Make pessaries of figs, and the leaves of mercury bruised, and rolled
up with lint. Make injections of the decoction of mercury, betony, origin,
mugwort and figs, and inject it into the womb by an instrument fit for that
purpose. For unction, take ladant, oil of mirrh, of each two drachms: oil
of lilies, almonds, capers, camomile, of each half an ounce, and with wax
make an unguent, with which let the place be anointed. Let the air be hot
and dry, her sleep shorter than ordinary, let her use moderate exercise before
meals, and let her meat and drink be attenuating.
SECTION III. Of the overflowing of the monthly courses.
THIS distemper is directly contrary to that of which I have spoken, in
the foregoing section, and is no less dangerous than the other, and there-
fore requires to be spoken of next in order. This distemper is a sanguine-
ous decrement, proceeding from the womb and exceeding in time and qua-
lity. I call it sanguineous, because there are two ways by which the blood
flows forth, one is by the internal veins in the body of the womb, which is
properly called the monthly flux; the other is, by those veins which are
terminated in the neck of the matrix, which from physicians call the hemor-
rides of the womb; and that it exceeds in quantity, when they flow about
three days; but this is the most certain sign of their excess in flowing, when
they flow so long that the faculties of the body are thereby weakened; for
in bodies abounding with gross humours, this immoderate flux does some-
times unburden nature of her load, and is not to be stopt without advice
from a physician.
The cause of this immoderate flowing is either external or internal. The
external cause may be the heat of the air, lifting and carrying heavy bur-
dens, unnatural child-births, falls, &c. The internal cause may be three-
fold, in the matter, instrument or faculty: the matter, which is the blood,
may be vicious two ways; first, in quantity being so much that the veins
are not able to contain it: secondly, in quality, being adust, sharp, waterish,
or unconnected. The instrument, viz. the veins are faulty by the dilation
of the orifice, which may be caused two ways: first, by the heat of the con-
stitution, climate, or season, heating the blood, whereby the passages are di-
lated, and the faculty weakened, that it cannot retain the blood: secondly,
by falls, blows, violent motion, breaking of a vein, &c.
This inordinate flux may be known by the appetite being decayed, the con-
coctin depraved, and all the actions of the body weakened; the feat swelled,
the colour of the face changed, and a general feebleness possesseth the whole
body. If it comes by the breaking of a vein, the body is sometimes cold,
the blood flows forth on heaps, and that suddenly, with great pain: if it
comes through heat, the orifice of the veins being dilated then there is little
or no pain, yet the blood flows faster than it doth in a erosion; and not so
fast as in a rupture. If by erosion, or sharpness of blood, she feels a great
heat scalding the passage it differs from the other two, in that it flows not so
suddenly nor so copiously as they do. If it be by weakness of the womb,
she has an aversion to copulation; if it proceeds from the blood, drop some 


THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE. 99
of it on a cloth, and when it is dry, you may judge of the quality by the co-
lour; if it be choleric, it will be yellow, if melancholy, black, if phlegma-
tick, waterish and whitish.
The cure of this consists in three particulars. First, in repelling and car-
rying back the blood: secondly, in correcting and taking away the fluxibil-
ity of the matter: and thirdly, in corroborating the vein or faculties. For
the first, to cause a regression of the blood, open a vein in her arm, and draw-
out so much blood as the strength of the patient will permit, and that not
an ounce, but at several times, for thereby the spirits are less weakened, and
the retraction so much the greater. Apply the cupping-glass to the liver,
that the reversion may be in the fountain. To correct the fluxibility of the
matter, cathartics moderated with astrictories may be used. If it be caused
by sharpness of blood, consider whether the corrosion be by salt phlegm, or
adust cholar; if by salt phlegm, prepare with syrup of violets, wormwood,
roses, citron peels, succory, &c. then take this purgation: Mirobolans, cher-
vil, half an ounce, trochisks of agaric one drachm, with plantain water make
a decoction, add thereto syr. rosar lux. three ounces, and make a potion. If
by an adust cholar, prepare the body with syrup of roses, myrtles, sorrel,
purslain, mixed with water of plantain, knot-grass, and endive, then purge
with this potion: Take rinds of mirobolana, rhubarb, of each one drachm,
cinnamon fifteen grains, infuse them one night in endive water, add to it
the strained pulp of tamarinds, cassia, of each half an ounce, syrup of roses
one ounce, and make a potion. If the blood be waterish and unconnected,
as it is in hydropical bodies, and flows forth by reason of the tenury, to draw
off the water will be profitable, to which end purge with agaric, elaterium,
and coloquintida. Sweatings is also very proper in this case, for by it the
matter offending is taken away, and the motion of the blood is carried to
the outward parts. To procure sweat, use cardanum water with mithridate
or the decoction of guiacum, sassafras, sansaparilla: taken of guiacum does
also greatly provoke sweat: and pills of sarsaparilla, taken every night at
going to bed, are worthily commended. If the blood flows forth from the
opening or breaking of a vein, without any evil quality of itself, then ought
corroberatives only to be applied, which is the thing to be done in this in-
ordinate flux; bole armoniac one scruple, London treacle one drachm, old
conserve of roses, half an ounce, with syrup of myrtles, make an electuary.
Or, if the flux has continued long, take of mastich two drachms, olibani-
tinct. de careble, of each one drachm, balanstium one scruple, make a pow-
der; with syrup of quinces make it into pills, and take one always before
meals.
SECTION IV. Of terms coming out of order, either before or after the
usual time.
BOTH these shew an ill constitution of body. Every thing is beautiful in
its order, in nature as well as in morality, and if the order of nature be
broke, it shews the body to be out of order. Of each of these effects briefly.
When the monthly courses come before their time, it shews a depraved
excretion that comes for the time often flowing sometimes twice a month:
The cause why they come sooner is in the blood, which stirs alp the expul-
sive faculty in the womb, or sometimes in the whole body, caused oftentimes
by the person's diet, which increases the blood too much, makes it too sharp
or too hot and if the retentive faculty of the womb be weak, and the ex-
pulsive faculty strong,and of a quick sense, it brings them forth the sooner,
and sometimes they flow sooner by reason of a fall, stroke, or some victor 


100 THE EXPERIENCED MIDWIFE.
passion, which the parties themselves can best relate. If it be from heat,
thin and sharp humours, it is known by the distemper of the whole body.
The loosness of the vessels, and the weakness of the retentive faculty, is
known from a moist and loose habit of body. It is more troublesome than 
dangerous, but hinders conception, and therefore the cure is necessary for all,
but especially such as desire children. If it proceeds from sharp blood, let
her temper it by a good diet and medicines; for which purpose let her use
baths of iron water, that correct the distemper of the bowels, and then eva-
cuase. If it process from the retentive faculty, and looseness of the vessels,
it is to be corrected with gentle astringents.                       
SECTION V. Of the false courses, or whites.
THE whites or false courses are a foul excretion from the womb, for
from the womb proceeds not only the menstruous blood, but accident-
ally many other excrements, which is a distillation of a variety of corrupt
humours through the womb, flowing from the whole body, or part of the
same; which though called the whites, are sometimes blue or green, or red-
dish, not flowing at a set time, or every month, but in a disorderly manner, 
sometimes longer, and sometimes shorter. It is different from the running
of the reins, both less in quantity and whiter and thicker in quality, and
coming at a great distance; it is different also from these night pollutions
which is only in sleep, and doth proceed from the imagination of venery.
The cause of this distemper is either promiscuously in the whole body, by
a cachochymia, or weakness of the same; or in some of the parts, as in the
liver, which by the inability of the sanguificative faculty, causeth a genera-
tion of corrupt blood, and then the matter is reddish: sometimes in the gall,
being remiss in its office, not drawing away those choleric superfluities which
are engendered in the liver, and then the matter is yellowish: sometimes in
the spleen, not defecating and cleansing the blood of the excrementitious parts,
and then the matter flowing forth is blackish. It may also come from ca-
tarrhs in the head, and from any other putrid or corrupt member. But if
the matter of the flux be white, the case is either in the stomach or reins.
In the stomach, by a phlegmatical and crude matter there contracted and
vitiated through grief, melancholy and other distemper; for otherwise, if
the matter were only pituitious, and no ways corrupt or vitiated, being tak-
en into the liver, it might be converted into blood; for phlegm in the ven-
tricle is called nourishment half digested; but being corrupt, although it be 
sent into the liver, it cannot correct that which the first hath corrupted, and 
therefore the liver sends it to the womb, which can neither digest nor re-
pel it, and so it is voided out, still keeping the colour which it had in the
ventricle. The cause also may be in the veins, being over heated, whereby
the spermatical matter, by reason of its tenuity, flows forth. The external
cause may be the moistness of the air, eating corrupt meats, anger, grief,
slothfulness, immoderate sleeping, and costiveness.
Thus I have gone through the principal diseases peculiar to the female
sex, and prescribed for each of them such remedies, as, with the divine bles-
sing, will cure their distemper, confirm their health, and remove all those
obstructions, which might otherwise prevent their bearing children: and I
have brought it into so narrow a compass, that it might be of the more gene-
ral use, being willing to put it into everyone's power, that has occasion for
it, to purchase this rich treasure at an easy rate.
THE END.