til B^^l ifhfl HfjKKKKj I M ■ »*—aB| ■>**■*.'.#•. ARISTOTLE. ARISTOTLE'S MASTER-PIECE/ COMPLETED. IN TWO PARTS. The First containing the Secrets of Generation In all the Parts thereof. Treating of the benefit of Marriage, and the pre* judice of unequal matches. Signs of Insuffici- ency in men or woman. Of the Infusion of the .' soul. Of the Likeness of children to parents. Of Monstrous Births. The cause and cure of the Green Sickness. A discourse of Virginity. Directions and cautions for Midwifes. Of the Organs of Generation in women, and the fab- ric of the Womb. The Uie and action of the Genitals. Signs of Conception, and whether a male or female; with a Word of Advice to both sexes in the act of Copulation. And the Pictures of several Monstrous Births, &c. The Second Part being a Private Looking Glass for the Female Sex. Treating of various Maladies of the Womb, and of all oilier distempers incident to women of all ages, with proper remedies for t^ie cure of each. The whole being more correct than any thing of the kind hitherto published. KEW-YOnK-. fcRINTEt) FOR THE COMPANY OF FLYING _ STATIONERS. 1807.^-_________/Hj ' ■'•*■■% JVw INTRODUCTION. IF one of the meanest capacity were asked, 'What 'was the wonder of the world?' I think.the most proper answer would be, Man : he being the little world, to whom all things are subordinate; agreeing in the genius with sensitive things; all, being animals, but differing in the species. For f«ian alone is endowed with reason.. And therefore tho Oeity, at man's creation(as the inspired penman tells us), said," Let us make mm " in our own immage, that he may be (as a creature " may be) like LTs, and the same in his likeness, may u be our immage," Some of the fathers do distin- guishas if by the image, the Lord doth plant the rea- sonable powers of the soul, reason,will and memory; and by likeness the qualities of the mind, charity, justice patience% &c. But Moses confounded this distinction if you compare these texts of scripture) Gen. i. 17. and v. 1 Coloss. x# Eph, v. 14. And the apostle, where he saith,' He was created after * the image of God, knowledge, and the same in ' righteousness and holyness.' The Greeks there represented him as one turning his eyes upwards to* wards lim, whose image & superscription he bears* 6ee how the heav'n's high architect Hath fram'd him in this wise, To stand to go, to look erect, With body, face and eyes. And Cicero s..ys, like Moses, all creatures were made to rot on the earth, except man, to whom wasi given an upright frame, to contemplate his Maker, and behold the mansion prepared for him above. ___________„-,, .A-"1 ________ _____ vi INTRODUCTION Now, to the end that so noble and glorious a creature might not quite perish, it pleased God to give unto woman the field of generation for a re- ceptacle of human seed, where by that natural and vegitible soul, which lies potentially in the seed, may, by the plastic power, be reduced into act; that man, Wh6 is a mortal creature, by leaving his offspring behind him, may become immortal, and survive in his posterity. And because this field of generation, the womb is the place where this excellent creature is formed, and that in so wonderful a manner, that the Royal palmist (haveing meditated thereon) cries out as oneinextacy,' 1 am fearfully & wonderfully made " It will be necessary to treat largely thereon in this book, which, to that end, is divided into two parts, i—the first whereof treats of the manner and parts of generation in both sexes; for, from the mutual de- sire they have to each other, which nature has im- planted into them to that end, that delight which they take in the act of copulation, does the whole race of mankind proceed; and a particular account of what things are previous to that act, and also what are consequential of it, and how each member con- cerned in it is adapted and fitted to that work, to to which nature has designed it *\nd though in ut- tering of those things, some thing may be said which those that are unclean may make bad use of, and vise it as a motive to stir up their bestial appetites; yet, such may know that this was never intended for them nor do I know any reason that those sober persons for whose use this was ment, should want the help hereby designed them, because vain, loose persons will be ready to abuse it. The second part of this tretise is wholly designed for the female sex, and does largely not only treat of the distempers of the womb, and the various INTRODUCTION. vii causes, but also gives you proper remedies for the cure of them ; for such is the ignorance of most women, that when, by any distemper, those parts are afflicted, they neither know from whence it pro- ceeds, nor how to apply a remedy; and such is their modesty, also, that they are unwilling to ask, that they may be informed ; and for the help of such this is designed: for having my being from a wo- man, I thought none had more right to the grapes than she that planted the vine. And therefore,observingthat among all diseases incident to the body, there are none more frequent and perilous than those that do arise fi om the ill state of the womb; for, through the evil quality thereof, the heart,the liver and the brain are affect- ed, from whence the actions, vital, natural and ani- mal, are hurt, and the virtues concoctive, sanguin- ificative, distributive, attractive, expulsive, reten- tive, with the rest, are all weakened ; so that from the womb come convulsions, epilepsies, apoplex- ies, palsies and fevers, dropsies, malignant ulcsrs, &c. And there is no disease so bad, but may grow worse from the evil qualify of it. How necessary, therefore, is the knowledge of these things, let every unprejudiced reader judge; for, that many women labour under them, through^ their ignorance and modesty (as I said before), woful experience makes manifest : here, there- fore (as in a mirror), they may be acquainted with their own distempers, and have suitable remedies, without applying themselves to physicians, agairis* which they have so great reluctance. aristotle's MASTER-PIECE, COMPLETED. PART FIRST. CHAP. I. Of Marriage, and at what age young men and vir- gins are capable of it; and why they so much desire it: Also, how long men and women are capable of having children. THERE are very few,except some professed debauchees, but what will readily agree, that marriage is honorable to all, being ordained by hea- ven in Paradise, and without which no man or wo- man can be in a capacity honestly to yield obedience to the first law of the creation—increase and multi- ply, and since it is natural in young people to desire these mutual embraces, proper to the marriage bed, it behoves parents to look after their children, and when they find them inclinable to marriage, not vi- olently to restrain their affections, and oppose their inclinations (which, instead o f allaying them, makes them but the more impetuous) but rather provide. such suitable matches for them, as may make their lives comfortable, lest the crossing of their inclina- tions should precipitate them to commit those follies that may bring an indelible stain upon their families. The inclinations of maids to marriage, is to be known by many symptoms; for when they arrive at puberty, which is about the fourteenth or fifteenth year of their age, then the natural purgations begin to flow, and the blood, which is no longer taken to augment their bodies, abounding, stirs up their minds to venery: External causes also may incite 10 Aristotle's Master-Piece. them to it, for their spirits being brisk and enflamed when they arrive at this age, if they eat hard salt things, and spices, the body becomes more and more heated, whereby the desire to venereal embraces is very great, sometimes almost insuperable. And the use of this so much desired employment being denied to virgins, many times is followed by dismal consequences, as a green wesel colour, short breath- ings trembling of the heart, Sec. But when they are married, and their venereal desires satisfied by the, enjoyment of their husbands, those distempers va- nish, and they become more gay and lively t/.un be- fore ; also their eager staring at men, and affecting theircompany, shews that nature pushes them upon toition, and their parents neglecting to get them husbands, they break thro' modesty to satisfy them- selves in unlawful embraces; it is the same in brisk widoWs, who cannot be satisfied without the bene- volence which their husbands used to give them. At the age of fourteen, the menses tn girls begin to flow, when they are capable of conceiving, and continue generally to forty-four, when they cease bearing, unless their bodies are strong and healthful, which sometimes enables them to bear at fifty-five. But, many times the menses proceed from some vi- olence offered to nature, or some morbific matter, which often proves fatal to the party, and therefore' those men that are desirous of issue, must marry a woman within the age aforesaid, or blame them- selves if they meet'with disappointments: Tho'if an old man, not worn out by diseases and inconti- nency, marry a brisk lively lass, there is hopes of his having children to three score and ten, nay, sometimes till near fourscore. Hippocrates holds, that a youth of fifteen years, Or between that and seventeen, having much vital strength, is capable of getting children; and, also, Aristotle's Master-Piece. 11 that the force of procreating matter increases till forty-five, fifty, and fifty-five, and then begins to flag, the seeds by degrees becoming unfruitful, the' natural spirits being extinguished,and the humours dried up. Thus, in general; but, as to particulars, it often falls out otherwise; nay, it is reported by a credible author, that in Sweden, a man was mar- ried at one hundred years, to a bride of thirty, and had many children by her, but his countenance was so fresh, that those that knew him not, took him not to exceed fifty. And in Campania, where the air is clear and temperate, men of 80 years old married young virgins, and had children by them; shewing that age in them hinders not procrea- tion, unless they be exhausted in their youth, and their yards shrivelled up. If any would know why a woman is sooner bar- ren than a man, they may be assured, that the natu- ral heat, which is the cause of generation, is more ' predomiuiJit in the latter than in the former : for, since a woman is truly more moi::t than a man, as ber monthly purgations demonstrate, as also the softness of her body, it is also apparent, tb.it he doth not exceed her in natural heat, winch is the chief thing that concocts the humours into proper ali- ment, which the woman wantiilg, grows fat; when a man, through his native heat, melts his fi.it by de- grees, and his humours are dissolved, and by the be- nefit thereof are.-elaborated into seed. And this mav also be added, that woman generally are not so Strong as men, nor so wise nor prudent, nor have- so much reason and ingenuity in ordering affairs, which shews that thereby their faculties arc hinder- ed operations. i2 Aristotle's Master-Piece. CHAP. II. How to get a male or female child, and of the embryo and perfect birth, and the fittest time for copu- lation. WHEN a youngcouple is married, they natu- rally desire children, and therefore use those means that nature has appointed to that end; but, notwithstanding their endeavours, they must know that the success of all depends on a blessing of the Lord; not only so, but the sex, wether male or female, is from his disposal also; though it cannot be denied, but secondary causes have influence therein, especially two,—First the genteial humor, which is brought by the arteria' prse paraentes to the testes in form of blood, and there elaborated in- to seed by the seminifical faculty residing in them; to which may be added, the desire of coition, which fires the imagination with unusual fancies, and by the sight of brisk charming beauty, may soon in- flame the appetite; but if nature be enfeebled, such meats must be eaten as will conduce to the affording such aliment as makes the seed abound, and restores the decays of nature, that the faculties may freely operate, and remove impediments obstructing the procreation of children. ' Then since diet alters the evil state of the body to a better, those who are subject to barrenness must; eat such meals as are of good juice, that nourish well, making th yjoody lively and full of sap, of which faculty are all hot moist meats: For, according to Galen, seed is made of pure concocted and windy superfluity of blood, whence we may conclude there is a power in many things to accumulate seed, al- so to augment it, and other things of force to cause erection, as hen-eggs, pheasants, woodcocks, griatsnappers, thrushes, blackbirds, young pigeons, aristotle's master-piece, 13 sprrrows, patridges, capoons, almonds, pine-nuts, raisans, currants all strong wines taken sparingly es- pecially those made of the graps of Italy; but erec- tion is chiefly caused by scuram, eringoes, cresses- crymson, parsnips, artichokes, turnips, rapes, as- paragus, candied ginger, galings, acorns bruised to powder drank in muscadel, scallions sea shell fish, f.cc;— but these must have time to perform their operation, and must use them for a considerable time, or you will reap but little benefit by them. The act of coition being over, let the woman repose herself on her right side with her head lying low, and her body declining, that by sleeping in that posture the cawl on the right side of the matrix may prove the place of the conception, for therein is the greatest generative heat, which is the chief procur- ing cause of male children, and rarely fails the ex- pectation of those that experience it, especially if they do but keep warm, without much motion, lean- ing to the right, and drinking a little spirit of saff- ron k juice of hysop in a glass of Malaga or Alicant, when they lie down & rise, for the space of a week. For a female child, let a woman lie on the left side, strongly fancying female in the time of pro- creation, drinking the decotion of female mercury four days from the first day of purgation—the ma{e mercury having the like opperation in case of male, for this concoction purges the right and left side of the womb opens the receptacles, and makes way for the seminary of generation to beget a female the the best time is when the moon is in the wane, in li- bra or A quarrius. Advicene says,' When the men- 4 ses are spent, and the womb clensed, which is com- * monly in five or seven days at most, if a man lie * v/ith his wife from the first day she is purged to ' the fifth, she will conceive a male; but from the ' fifih to the eighth a female ; and from the eighth ._! . ' ' R—__„__ 14 Aristotle's master-piece. " to the twelfth a male again; but after that per- " haps neither distinctly but bothjn a heramaphro- " dite." In a word they that would be happy in the fruits of tlieir labor, must observe to use copulation. in due distance of time,not too often nor too seldom, for both are a like hurtful; and to use it immediatly weakens and wasts their spirits, and spoils the seed; and thus much for the particular. 'I'he second is to let the reader know, how the child is formed in the womb, what accidents it is liable to there, and how nourished and brought forth. There are various opinions, concerning this mat- ter therefore 1 will shew what the learned say about it. Man consists of an cg^ which is impregnated into the testicles of the woman by the. more subtle: part of the man's seed ; Lut the forming faculty and virtue in the seed is a divine gift, it being abundant- ly endued with a vital spirit, which gives sap and form to the embryo ; so that all parts and bulk of the body, which is made up in a few months, and gradually formed into the lovely figure of a map, do consist in, and are adumbrated thereby, which is incompareably expressed in the cxxxviii psalm,' t " will pras;; thee O Lord, because i am wonderfully " made and, he." And the physicians have slighted four different times wherein a man is framed and perfected in the womb, the first moon after coition being perfect in the first week, if no (lux happens, which sometimes falls out,through the.siipperiness of the matrix of the head thereof, that shifts over like a rose-bud, and opens on a sudden by means of forming, is assigned to be when nature makes man- liest mutation in the conception, so that all the sub- stance seems congealed flesh and b!ood> which hap- pens twelve or fourteen day s afte r copulation. And though this fleshy miss abounds with fiery blooodr yet iire.ms*i7is undbtinguishuVk-, wit.U-jut form ok. aristotle'smaster-piice. 15 figure and may be called an embryo, and compared to seed sown in the ground, which, thro' heat and moisture, grows, by degrees, into a perfect form*, either in plant or grain. The third time assigned to make up this fabric, is when the principal parts shew themselves as plain, as the heart, whence pro- ced the arteries. The brain from which the nerves, like small threads, run through the whole body; and the liver that divides the chyle from the blood brought to it by the veny porta, the two first are fountains of life, that nourish every part of the body, in fraiming which the faculty of the womb is buiied from the time of conception to the eighth day of the first month. Lastly, about the thirtieth day, the outw rd parts are seen finely wrought,and distinguished by joints, when the child begins to grow, from which time, by reason the limbs are divided and the whole frame is perfect, it is no longer an embryo, but a perfect child. Most males are perfect by the thirtieth day, but females seldom to the forty-second or forty-fifth day, because the heat of the womb is greater in pro- ducing the male than the female; and for the same reason, a woman going with a male child quickens in three months, but going with a female, rarely un- der four, at which time also its hair and nails come forth, and the child begins to stir, kick and move in the womb, and then woman are troubled with loath- ing of their meet, and greedy longing for thing* contrary to nutriment, as coals, rubbish, chalk, Etc which desire often occasions abortion and miscarri- age. Some woman have been so extravagant as to long for hob-nails, leather, men's flesh, horse flesh, & other unnatural as well as unwholesome food, for want of which things they have either miscarried, or the child has continued dead in the womb for se- veral days, to the imminent hazard of their live*. 16 aristotle's masler-piece. But I shall now proced to shew by what real means the infant is sustained in the womb, and what pos- ture it there remains in. Various arc the opinions about nourishing the foe- tus in the womb : borne say by blood only, from the umbilical vein; others by the chyle, taken in by the mouth ; but it is nourished diversly according to the several degreesof perfection that an egg passes from a conception to fretus ready for birth. But, first let us explain the meaning of ovum or the egg: In the generation of the foetus there are two prin- cipals, active and passive—the active is the man's seed elaborated in the testicles, out of arterial blood and animal spirits—the passive is an egg impreg- nated by the man's seed. And the nature of con- ception is thus: the most spiritous part of the man's seed in the act of generation, reaching up to the testicles of the woman, which contains diverse ggs, imprignates one of them, which being conveyed by the oviducts to the bottom of the womb, present- ly begins to swell bigger and bigger, and drinks in the moister that is plentifully sent thither, as seeds suck moisture in the ground, to make them sprout out, when the parts of the embryo begin to be a lit- tle more perfect, 8c that at the same time the cho- rin is very thick, that the liquor cannot soak thro' it the umbilical vessels begin to be formed and to extend the side of the amnion which they pass fhio', and all through the aliantreides and chorin, and are implfcnted in the placenta, which gathering upon the chorin, joins to the uterus. And now the arte- ries that before sent out the nourishment intotheca- vity of the womb, opened by the orifice into tha pla- centa, where they deposit the said juice, which is drank up by the unbilical vein, and conveyed by it, first to the liver of the foetus, and then to the heart, where its more thin and spiritous part is turned into Aristotle's Master-Piece. 17 blood, while the grosser part descending by the aorta, enters the umbilical arteries, "and is dis- charged into its cavity by those branches that run through the aminon. As soon as the mouth, stomach, gullet, &c. are formed so perfectly, that the foetus can swallow, it sucks in some of the grosser nutricious juice, that is deposited in the amnion by the umbilical arte- ries, which descending into the stomach and in- testines, is received by the lecteal veins, as in adult persons. The fetus being perfected, at the time before specified, in all its parts, it lies equally balanced in the womb, as the centre on his head, and being long turned oval, so that the head a little inclines, and it lays its chin upon its breast, its heels and ancles upon its buttocks, its hands on its cheeks, and its thumbs to its eyes ; 4>ut its legs and thighs are carried upwards, with its hams bending, so that they touch the bottom of its belly, the former and that part of the body which is over against us, as the forehead, nose and face, are towards the mother's back, and the head inclining downwards, towards the rump-bone that joins to the os sacrum, which bone, together with the os pubis, in the time of birth, part is loosed, whence it is, that the male children commonly come with their faces downwaids, or with their head turned somewhat oblique, that their faces may be seen, but the female children with their facts upwards ; though sometimes it happens that births do not follow according to nature's order, but children come forth with their feet standing, their necks bowed, and their heads lying oblique, with their hands stretched out, which greatly endangers themselves and the mother, giving the midwife great trouble to bring them into the world ; but when all things 18 Aristotle's Master-Piece. proceed in nature's order, the child when the time of birth is accomplished, is desirous to come forth of the womb, and by inclining himself, he rolls downwards, for he can no more be obscured in those hidden places, and the heat of the heart can- not subsist without external respiration, whereof be- ing grown great more and more desirous of nutri- ment and light, when covering the setherial air, by struggling to obtain it, breaks the membranes and .""' coverings,whereby he was restrained and fenced against attrition, and for the most part, with bitter pangs of the mother, issueth forth into the world commonly in the ninth month. For the matrix being dividedandthe os pubis loosened, the woman strives to cast out her burden, and the child does the like to get forth, by the help of its inbred strength, and so the bi$$i, .comes to be perfect; but if the child be dead; the more dangerous the delivery, tho' nature often helps the woman's weakness herein; but the child that, is quick and lively, labours no less than the woman. Now, there are births at seven or eight months, and some women go to the tenth month ; but ct^h.pse,and the reasons of them I shall speak moreTargUy in another place.__________ CHAP. 111. The -reason wh#pulation,to eject her seed, she of- ten falls into str^uige diseases, as appear by young women 8c virgins : A second reason they urge, is, that although the society of a lawful bed consist not altogether in these things, yet it is apparant, the female sex are never better pleased, nor appear more blith and jocund then when they are satisfied this way ; which is an inducement to believe, they have more pleasure & titillation therein than men. for, bince nature,causes much delight to company ejection, by the breaking forth of the swelling spi- rits and the sweetness of the nerves, in which case t]ie opperation on the woman's .p.ut is double, she artstotle's master-piece. 21 having an enjoyment both by ejection and recep- tion, by which she is more delighted in the act. Hence it is (say they), that the child more fre- quently resemble:, the mother than the father, be- cause the mother contributes most towards it. And they think it may be further instanced, from the en- deared affection they bare to them ; for that besides contributing seminal matter, they feed and nourish the child with the purest fountain of blood, until its birth. Which opinion Galen affirms, by allowing children to partisip.tte most of the mother, and ascribes the differance of sex to the operation of the menstrual blood ; but the reason of the likeness, he refers to the power of the seed; for as plants receive more nourishment from fruitful ground than from the industry of the husbandmin, so the infant re- ceieves in more abundance from the mother than the father. For, first, the seed of both is cherished in the womb, and there grows to perfection, being nourished with blood: and for this reason it is (say they) that children for the most part, love their mo- ther best, because they receive most of their sub- stance from tlieir mother : For about nine months she nourishes her child in her womb, with her pure- est blood ; then, her love towards it, newly born, and its likeness, do clearly shew, that the woman affordeth seed and contributes more towards ma- king the child than the man. But, in all this the ancients are very erronious, for the testicles (so called in woman) afford not any seed, but are two eggs, like those of fowls, and oth- er creatures ; neither have they any office as those of men but are indeed ovaria, wherein the eggs arc nourished, by the sanguinary vessels dispersed through them ; and from hence one or more (as they are fecundated by the man's seed) is sepa- rated, and conveyed into the womb by the oviducts. 22 ahistotle's master-piece. —The truth of this is my plan, for, if you boil them, their liquor will be the same colour, tast and con- sistencey with the taste of birds eggs. I f any ob- ject, they have no taste that signifies nothing ; for the eggs of fowls, while they are in the ovary, nay, after they are fastened to the uterus, have no shell: And though, when they are laid, they have one, yet that is no more than a defence which nature has provided them against any outward injury, while they are'hatched without the body ; whereas those, of the woman being hatched within the body, need no other defence than the womb, by which they are sufficiently secured. And this is enough, I hope for the clearing of this point. As to the third thing proposed, as whence grows the kind and whether the man or wo- man is the cause of the male or female infant ? The primary cause we may ascribe to Ciod, as is, most justly his due who is the ruler&cdisposer of all things, yet he suffers many thing to proceed accor- ding to the rules of nature, which proceed by their inbred motion, according to usual and natural courses without variation. Tho', indeed by favour from on high, Sarah conceived Isaac—Hannah, Samuel—& Elizabeth, John the Baptist: But these are all very extraordinary things, brought to pass by a Divine Power, above the course of nature ; nor- have such instances been wanting in latter days, therefore 'shall wave them and proceed to speak of things natural. The ancient physicians and philo- sophers say, that since that there are two principals out of which the body of m-r. is made, and which renders the child like his parents, and by one or the other sex, viz. seed, common to both sexes, and menstrual blood.propper to the woman only,the si- militude (say they) must needs consist in the force of virtue of the male or female, so that it proves aristotle's master-piece. 2" like the one or the other according to the plenty af- forded by either ; but that the difierance of the sex is not referred to the seed, but to the menstrual blood, which is proper to the woman, is apparent. For were that force altogether retained in the seed, the male seed being of the hottest quality male chil- cren would abound, and few of the females be prop- agated ; wherefore, the sex is atributed to the tem- perament of the active qualities, which consist in the heat and cold and the nature of the matter under them ; that is the flowing of the menstrous blood ; but now the seed (say they) affords both force to procreate & form the child, and matter for its gen- eration . and in the menstruous blood there is both matter and force ; for, as the seed most helps the material principal, so also does the menstrual blood the potential seed ; which is (says Galen) blood well concocted by the vessels that contain it. So that blood is not'only the matter for genrating the child, but all seed in possibility that menstrual blood hath both principals. The ancients further say, that the seed is the stronger efficient; the matter of it being very little in quality but the potential quality of it is very strong ; whereof, if these principals of generation, according to which the sex is made, where only (say they) in the menstrual blood then would the children be all mostly females ; as, where the ef- ficient force in the seed, they would be all males ; but since both have opperation in menstrual blood, matter predominates in quantity ; and in the seed> force and virtue, and therefore Galen thinks the child receives its sex rather from the mother than from the father; for, tho' his seed contributes a little to the material principal yet it is more weekly. But for likeness, it is refered rather to the faher than to the mother. Yet the woman's seed receiving 24 Aristotle's Masteb-piece. strength from the menstrual blood, for the space of nine months, overpowers the m^n's as to that par- ticular ; for, the menstrual blood flowing in the ves- sels rather cherishes the one than the other ; from which it is plain, the woman affords both matter to make, and force and virtue to perfect the concep- tion ; though the female's seed be fit nutriment for the male's, by reason of the thinness of it, being more adapted to make up conception thereby. For as of soft wax and moist clay, the artificer can frame what he intends, so (say they) the man's seed mix- ing with the woman's, and also with the menstrual blood, helps to form and perfect part of man. But with all imaginable deference to the wis- dom of our fathers, give me leave to say, that their ignorance in the anatomy of man's body, has led them into the paths of error, and run them into great mistakes; for their hypothesis of the forma- tion of the embryo from the cOto-mixture of seed, and the nourishment of it, too, in the menstruous blood, being wholly false, their opinion, in thi6 case, must, of necessity, be so also. 1 shall, therefore, conclude this chapter, and only say, that, altho' a strong imagination of the mother may often detcrmin the sex, yet the main agent in this case is the plastic and formative principal, which is the efficient in giving form to the child, which gives this or that sex, according to those laws and rules given to us by the wise Creator of all Things, who both makes and fashions it, and therein determines the sex, according to the coun- sel of his own will. Aristotle's Master-Piece. 25 CHAP. IV. A discourse of Man's Soul, that it is not propaga- ted by the parents ; but is infused by the Creator, and can neither die nor corrupt. At what time it is infused. Of its Immortality, aud certainty of the resurrection. MAN's soul is of so divine a nature and ex- cellency, that man himself cannot, in any wise, comprehend it, it being the infused breath of the Almighty, of an immortal nature, and not to be comprehended but by him that gave it. For, Mo- ses, by holy inspiration, relating the original of man, tells us, "that God breathed into his nostrils " the breath of life, and he became a living soul." Now, as for all other creaturs, at his word they were made, and had life . but the creatur God had appointed to set over his works, was the peculiar workmanship of the Almighty, forming him out of the dust of the earth, and condescending to breathe into his nostrils the breath of life, which seems to denote more care and (if we may so term it) labour used about man. than about all others creaturs, he only partaking and participating of the blessed di- vine nature, bearing God's image in innocence and purity, whilst he stood firm , and when, by his fall, that lively image was defaced, yet such was the love of his Creator towards him, that he found out a way to restore him—the only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father coming into the world to destroy the works of the Devil, and to raise up Man from that low condition to which his sin and fall had re- duced him, to a state above that of angels. If, therefore, man would understand the excel- lency of his soul, let him turn his eyes inwardly & look into himself, and search diligently his own mind, and there he shall see many admirable gii>s C 26 Aristotle's Master-Piece. and excellent ornaments that must needs possess him with wonder and amazement, as reason, under- standing freedom of will, he. that plainly shew the soul to be descended from a heavenly originah, and that, therefore, it is of infinite duration, and not sub- ject to annihilation. Yet, for its many offices and ope- rations whilst in the body, it goes under several de- nomminations ; For, when it enlivens the body, it is called the soul; when it gives knowledge, the judg- ment or mind ; and when it recals things past, the memory, whilst it discourses and discerns, reason; whilst it contemplates, the spirit; whilst it is the sensitive parts, the senses. And these are the prin- cipal offices, whereby the soul declares its power, and performs its action ; for, being seated in the highest parts of the body, it diffuseth its force into every member ; not propagated from the parents, nor mixed with gross matter, but the infused breath of god immediately proceeding from him, not pas- sing from one to another, as was the opinion of Py- thagoras, who held a transmigration of the soul, but that the soul is given to every infant by infusi- on, is the most received and orthodox opinion; and the learned do likewise agree,that this is done when the infant is perfected in the womb, which happens about the twenty-fourth day after conception, esp- cially for males, who are generally born at the end of nine months ; but in females, who are not so soon formed and perfected, thro' defect of heat not till the fiftieth day. And though this day, in all cases, cannot be truly set down, yet Hypocrates has given his opinion, when the child has its perfect form, when it begins to move, and when born, if in due season. In his book of the nature of infants he says, if it be a female, and he be perfect on the thirtieth day, and move on the nint-..Lth day, he will be born 13 2 Aristotle's Master-Piece. 27 ©n the seventh month; but if he be perfectlyformed on the thirty-fifth day, he will move on the seven- tieth and be bom on the eighth month; again, if he be perfectly formed on the fifty-fifth day, he will move on the ninetieth, and be born on the ninth month. Now from those passing of days and months it plainly appears, that the day of forming being doubled, makes up the day of moving, and that day three times reckoned, nukes up the day of birth. - As thus, when thirty-five perfects the form, if you double it, nukes seventy, the day of motion, and three times seventy amount to two hundred and ten days, which, allowing thirty days to a month, makes seven months; and so you must consider the rest. But, as to a female, the case is different; for, it is longer perfecting in the womb, the mother ever going longer with a boy than a girl, which makes the account differ; for, a female formed in thirty days, moves not till the seventieth day, and is born in the eighth month: when she is formed on the fortieth, she moves not till the eightieth, and is born on the eighth month; but, if she be perfectly formed on the fifty-fifth day,she moves on the nine- tieth, and is born on the ninth month; but, if sho that is formed on the sixtieth day, moves the hun- dred-and-tenth,and will be bom en the tenth month. I treat the more largely hereof, that the ready may know, the reasonable soul is not propagated by the parents ; but is infused by the Almighty, when the cliild hath its perfect forim and is exactly distin- guished in its lineaments. Now, as the life of every other creature, as Mo- ses shews, is in the blood, so the life of man consist - eth in the soul, which, although subject to passion, by reason of the gross composures of the body, in which it has a temporary confinement, yet it i,s im* 28 Aristotje's Master-Piece. mortal and cannot in itself corrupt or suffer change, it being a spark of the Divine Mind ; and that eve- ry man has a peculiar soul, plainly appears by the difference between the will, judgement, opinion, manners and affections in men. And this David ob- serves, saying, " God hath formed the hearts and u minds of all men, and hath given to every one his " own being and a soul of its own nature." Hence, Solomon rejoiced that God had given him a happy soul and a body agreeable to it. It has been dispu- ted among the learned in what part of the body the soul resides ; aud some are of opinion, its residence, ,1s in the middle of the heart, and from thence com- municates itself to every part, which Solomon, in Proverbs iv. seems to affirm, when he says, * Keep 4 thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the ^issues of life.' But many curious physicians, searching the works of nature in man's anatomy, do affirm that its chief seat is. in the brain, from whence proceeds the senses, faculties and actions, diffusing the operation of the soul thro' all the parts of the body whereby it is enlightened with heat and force to the heart, by the arteries, cordite^ or slee- py arteries, which part upon the throat, the which, if they happen to be broken or cut, they cause barrenness ; and if stopped, an apoplexy ; for, there must necessarily be ways thro' which the spirits, animal and vital, may have intercourse, and convey native heat from the soul. For, though the soul hath its chief seat in one place, it operates in every part, exercising every member which are the souls instruments by which she discovers her pow- er. But if it happens that any of the organical parts are out of tune, its whole work is confused, as appears in ideots 8c madmen, tho' in some of them the soul, by vigorous exerting its power recovers its innate strength, and they become right after a Aristotle's Master-Piece. 29 long despondency in mind ; but in others it is not recovered again in this life. For as a fire under ashes, or the sun obscured from our sight by thick clouds, afford not their full-lustre, so the soul over- whelmed in moist or morbic mattcr,is darkened, & reason overclouded ; and though reason shines less in children than such as are arrived to maturity, yet no man must imagine that the soul of an in- f.»nt grows up with the childdor then would it again decay ; but it suits itself to nature's weakness, and the imbecility of the body wherein it is placed that it may opperate the better. And as the body is more and more capable of receiving its infiur ence, so the soul does more and more exert its fa- culties, having force and endowments at the time it enters the form of a child in the womb, for its substance can receive nothing less. And thus much to prove the soul comos not from the pa- rents, but is infused by God. I shall next prove its immortality, and so demonstrate the certainty of our resurrection. That the soul of man is a divine ray, infused by the Sovereign Creator, I have aire.idy proved; and now come to shew that whatever immediately proceeds from him, and participates of his nature, must be as immortal as its origin ; for, though all other creatures are endowed with life and motion, yet they want a reasonable soul; and from thence it is concluded, that their life is in their blood, and that being corruptible they perish and are no more ; but man being endowed with a reasonable soul, St stamped with the divine image, is of a different nature ; and tho' his body be corruptible, yethis soul being; of an immcrtul nature, cannot perish, but must, at the dissolution of his body, return to God who eave it, either to receive reward, or pu- nishment." New, that the body r-»n sin of Useif i« C 2 3o Aristotle's Master-Piece. impossible ; because, wanting the soul, which is the principal pf life, it cannot act, nor proceed to any thing either good or evil; for, could it do so, it might sin even in the grave ; but it is plain, that after death there is a cessation ; for, as death leavesus, so judgement will find us. Now, reason having evidently demonstrated the soul's immortality, the holy scriptures do abud- antly give testimony to the truth of the resurrec- tion, as the reader may see by perusing the 9th and 14th chapters of Job, and the 5th of St. John, I shall, therefore, leave the further discoursing of this matter to divines, whose proper province it is, and return to treat of the works of nature.______ ~CHA?TV7~ Of Monsters, and Monstrous Births. MONSTERS are properly depraved concep- tions, and are deemed by the ancients to be excur- sions of nature, and are always vicious, either in figure, situation, magnitude or number. They are vicious in figure, when a man bears the character of a beast; they are vicious in magnitude, when the parts are not equal, or that one part is big- ger than the other; and this is a thing very com- mon, by reason of some excrescence. They are vic- ious in situation many ways, as if the ears were on the face, or the eyes on the breasts or on the legs, as was seen in a monster born at Ravenna in Italy, in the year 1570. And, lastly, they are vicious in number, when a man hath two heads, four hands, and two bodies joined, which was the case of the monster born at Zazara in the year 1550. As to the cause of their generation, it is either divine or natural The divine cause proceeds from the permissive will of the great Auther of our be- ing, suffering parents to bring forth such depraved Aristotle's Master-Piece. 31 monsters, as a punishment for their filthy and cor- rupt affections, which are let loos unto wickedness like brute beasts that have no understanding; for which reason the ancient Romans enacted, that those who were deformed should not be put into religious houses. And St. Jerome, in his time, grieved to see the deformed and lame offered up to God in religious houses; and Xecherman, by way of inference, excluded all that were mishapen, because outward deformity of body is often a sign of the pollution of the heart, being a curse laid up- on the child for the incontinence of the parents. Yet there are many born deformed, which deformed ought not to be ascribed to the parents. Let us there- fore search out the natural cause of their genera- tion, which, according, to the ancients, who have dived into the secrets of nature, is either in the matter of the agent, in the seed, or in the womb. The matter may be in fault two ways, either by de- fect or by excess; by defect, when tKe child hath but one arm or one leg, &e. by excess, when it has three hands or two heads. Some monsters are also begotten by woman's bistial and unatural coi- tion, &c. The agent or womb may be in fault three ways ; First, In the forming faculty, which may be too strong or two weak; by which a deprived figure is sometimes produced: Secondly, the in- strument or place of conception; the evil con- formation or evil disposition whereof will cause a monstrous birth. And, Thirdly, the imaginative power at the time of conception, which is of such force that it stamps a character of the thing ima- gined upon the child; so that the child or the children of an adulteress, by the mother's imagina^ tive power, may have the nearest resemblance to her own husband, though begotten by any other man. And thor' this power' or imaginative faculty 3a Aristotle's Master Piece. it was, that a woman, at the time of conception, be- holding the picture of a blackamoor, conceived and brought forth a child, resembiiog an Ethiopian^ And that this power of imagination was well en- ough know to the ancients, is evident by the ex- ample, of Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of 1 sracl, who having agreed with his father-in-law to have all the spotted sheep for the keeping of his flock, to increase his wages, took hazel-rods, peaiing them with white streaks in them, and laid them before the sheep when they came to drink, urn! they coupling together, whilst they beheld the rods, concievtd andbrought forth spotted young. Ndr does the imagination work on the child at the time of conception only, but afterwards also ; as was seen in the example of a worthy* gentlewo- man, who being big with child, and passing by a butcher killing mtat, a drop of blood sprinkled on her face; whereupon she presently said that the child would have some blemish on its face, which proved true, for at the birth it was found marked with ;» ted ">pot. But besides {he way already mentioned, monst- ers are sometimes produced by other means: to wit. by the undue coition of a man and his wife when her monthly courses aie upon her ; which being a thing against nature, no wonder that it should produce an unnatural issue. If therefore 'a man's desire be ever so great for coition, (as sometimes it is after long absence.) yet if a woman knows that the custom of women is upon her, she ought not u> admit of any embraces, which at that time art both unclean and unatutul- The issue of these unclean embraces proving often monstro- Ui, us a just punishment tor hucli a turpidtnous action. Or if they should not^iwdys produce Aristotle's Master-Piece. 33 monstrous births, yet are the children thus be- gotten for the most part dull, heavy ,. sluggish, and defective in the understanding, wanting the vivaci- ty and liveliness which those children who are be- gotten when woman are free from their courses are endued with. Therehas been some contending among auth- ors, to know whether those who are born mon- sters have reasonable souls, some affirming, and others denying it, the result of both at last com- ing to this, that those who, according to the or- der of nature, are descended from our first pa- rents by the coition of a man and a woman, though their outward shape be deformed and monstrous, have notwithstanding reasonable souls; but those monsters that are not begotten by man, but are the product of a woman's unatural lust, and copulating with other creatures, shall perish as the brute beasts by whom they were begotten, not having a reasonable soul. The same being also true of imperfect and abortive births. There are some of opinion that monsters may be engendered by infernal spirits; but notwithstanding ./Egidius Facius pretended tobelieve it with respect to a deformed monster born at Cracovia; Sc Hitro* nimus writeth of a maid that was got with child by the devil; but he being a wicked spirit, and not capable of having human seed, how is it possible he should beget a human creature '* If they say the devil may assume to himself a dead body and enliven the faculties of it, and thereby make it able to generate; I answer, that though we suppose this could be done, which I believe not, yet that body must bear the image of the devil; and it bor- ders upon blasphemy to think, that the all-wise and good Being would so far give way to the 34 Aristotle's Master-Piece^ worst of spirits.as to suffer him to raise up his dia- bolical offspring: for in the school oi nature we are taught the contrary,vz.that like hegets like,whence it follows, that a man cannot be begot of a devil. The first I shall present is a most frightful monster indeed, representing an hairy child. It was covered over with hair like a beast. But what rendered it yet more frightful was, that its navel was in tht-place where his nose should stand, and his eyes placed where his mouth should have been, and its mouth was in the chin. It was of the male kind* and born in France, in the year 1597 ; of which the following is a figure. A boy was born in Germany with one head aijd one body, but having four ears, four arms. Aristotle's Master-Piece. S5 four thighs, four legs, and four feet. This birth the learned, who beheld it, judged toproceed from the redundance of the seed: but there riot being enough for twins, nature formed what she couli, and so made the most of it. This child lived some years, and though he had four feet, he knew not how to go :—by which we may see the wis- dom of nature, or rather the goodness of nature, and of natur's God, in the formation of the body of man. See the annexed figure. Heaven ini our first formation did provide Two arms, two legs : bnt what we haye be'side Renders us monstrous and'rnishapin too', Nor have we any work for them to do ; Two arms, two legs, are all that we can use, A nd to have more there's no wiaemaa Will chusfi. 36 Aristotle's Masttsr-Piece. In the time of king Henry III. a woman Was delivered of a child, having two heads and four arms, and the rest was a twin under the navel; and then beneath all the rest was single, as appears in the plate below. The heads were so placed that they looked contrary ways, and each had two dis- tinct arms and hands: they would both laugh, both speak, and both cry, and eat and be hungry together. Sometimes the one wouhl speak, and the other keep sUence, and sometimes both would speak together. It was of the female sex , and though it had two mouths, and did eai with both, yet there was but one fundament to disburden nature. It lived several years, but the one out- Aristotle's Master-Piece. ">57 lived the other three years, carrying the dead one (for there was no parting them) till the 1 (tier fainted With the burden, and more with the hiuk of the dead carcase. A child was born in Flanders which had two heads and four arms, seeming like two girls joined together, having two of .their arms lilted up between and above their htuds; the thighs being placed as it were across one another, ac- cording to the figure in the following plate. How long they lived 1 hud no account of. Nature to usdoes sometimes monsters show, That we by them may our own mercies know ; And thereby sin's deformity may see, Than which there'snothingcanmore monstrous be D S3 aristotle's mastfr.piece. CHAP. VI. A di c urse of the happy state of Matrimony, as it is appointed of God, and the true felicity that re- dounds thereby to either sex, and to what end it is ordered. ITHOUT doubt, the uniting of hearts in holy wedlock is of all conditions the hap- piest, for then a man has a second self, to whom he can unravel his thoughts, as well as a sweet com- panion in his labour ; he has one in whose breast, as in a safe cabinet, he may repose his inmost secr- ets, especially where reciprocal love and inviolate faith is settled ; for there no care, fear, jealousy, mistmst on hatred can ever interpose. For what man ever hated his own flesh, and truly a wife, if rightly considered, as our grandfather observed, is or ought to be esteemed of every honest man, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, &c Nor was it the least care of the Almighty to ordain so near an union, and that for two causes, the first for increase of posterity, the second to bridle and bind man's wandering desires and affections ; nay, that thty might be yet happier when God had joined them together, he blessed them, as it is in the ii. of Genesis. Columily contemplating this happy state, tells out of the Economy of Xcno- phon, that the maniage bid is not only the most pi asunl, but profitable course of life that maybe entertd on for the preservation and incici.ise of posterity; wherefore since marriage is the most &.afe, sure, and delightful-station of mankind, who is exceeding prone, by the dictates \>f nature, to propagate his like, he does in no ways pibvide w I Aristotle's Master-Piece. 39 amiss for his own tranquility who enters into it, especially when he comes to maturity of years, for there are many abuses in marriage, contiary towhatis ordained, which in the ensuing chapter* 1 shall expose to view. But to proceed, seeing our blessed Saviour and his holy apostles dtttsted unlawful lust and pro- nouneedthose to be excluded the kingdom of hea- ven, that poluted themselves with adultry and whoring. I cannot conceive what luce persons can have to colour their impieties, who, hating matri- mony, make it their study how they may live lir centiously ; but in so doing, they rather setk to themselves torment, anxiety and disquietudes, than certain pleasure, besides the hazard of their immortal soul ; for certain it is, mercenary love, or (as the wise man calls tiiem) harlots smires, cannot be true and sincere, & therefore not plea- sant, but rather a net laid to betray such as trust in them into all mischief as Solomon observes, by the young men void of understanding, who turn- ed aside to the harlo'.'s house. As a bird to the snare of the fowler, or an ox to the slaughter, till the dart be struck through the liver. Nor in this case can they have children, those endearing piej dges of conjugal affection ; or if they have, they will rather redound to their shame than comfort, bearing the odious brand of bastards: Harlots, likewise, are like swallows flying in the summer season of prosperity, but the black stormy wea- ther of adversity coming, they take wings and fly into other regions; that is, seek themselves other lovers, but a virtuous chaste wife, fixing her en'- irelove upon her husbai.d, and submitting to him 40 Aristotle's Master-piece. as her head and king, by whose directions she ought to steer in all lawful courses, will, like a faithful companion, snare patiently with him in adv; rMtics, run win.- cheerfulness through all dif- ficulties aid dangers, though ever so hazardous, to prt serve or assist him in poverty, sickness, or whatever other misfortune may bifid him ; acting according to her duly in ali things ; but a proud, inperious harlot will do more than she ln-ts in the sun shine of piosperity ; and like a horse-leech, ever craving and never Balisfkd, still seeming dis- pleased if all her extravagant cravings be not answered, not regarding the ruin and misery she brings upon him by those means, though she seems to dote upon him. uispg to confirm her hy- pocrisy with crocodile's tears,vows and swoon:-ngs, when Ik r cully is to depart awhile, or seems but to deny her immoderate desires; yet this lasts no longer than she can gratify he appetite and prey upon his fortune. H markable is the story that Cornadus Gosrner tells us of a young man trav- elling from Athens toTh^bes who met by the way a beautiful, lady ; as to appearance she seemed adorned with all perfection of beauty, glittering with gould and precious stones. This seemed fair one saluted him, and inviting hm to her house, not far off, pretending to be exceedingly enamoured with hjm.and declattd she had a long time waited for an opportunity to find him alone, that she might reveal her passion to him. The young spark went with her. and whtn he came* to her hou^e, ht found it, to appearance, built very stally, and veiy well furnished; which so far wrought upon his covttoirs inclination, thai he re- Aristotle's master-piece. 41 solved to put off his intended journey, and yield to her enticements; but whilst she was leading him to see the pleasant places adjoining to the house, came up a holy pilgrim, who seeing in what danger the youth was, resolved to set him in his right senses and shew him what he arnagin- ed real, was quite otherways ; so that by powerful prayer the mist was taken from before his eyes, who then beheld his lady ugly, deformed, and monstrous, and that whatever had appeared glo- rious and butiful, was only trash, Then he made her confess what she was, and her design upon the yong man, which she did. saying, She was one of the Lamice or Paries, and that she had thus enchanted Iwm on purpose to get him into her power, that she might devour him. This passage may be fully alluded to harlots, who draw those that follow their misguiding lights into the place of danger, till they have caused them to shipwrack their fortune, and then leave them to struggle with the storms of adversity which they have raised. Now on the contrary, a loving,, chaste and even-tempered wife seeks what si;e may to prevent such dangers, and in every condi- tion does all to make him easy. And, in a word, as there is no content in the embraces of a har- lot, so there is no greater joy than in the reci^ proc.al affection and endearing embraces of a loving, obedient and chaste wife. Nor is that the principal end for which matrimony was ordain: d- butthat the man might follow the law of his crea- tion, by the increasing of bis kind, and replenish' the earth, for this was the injunction laid upv.i him in Paradise before his fall.-——Toconclude, a virtuous wife is a crown and ornament to her hus- . band, and her price is above rubies, but the >,y:v* i 42 Aristotle's Master-Piece. CHAP. VII. Of errors in Marriage, why they are, and the Pre- judice of them. BY errors in marriage, ! mean the unfitness of the persons marrying to enter into this state, and that both with respect to age and the constitution of their bodies ; and there/on those that design to enter into that condition ougl.t to observe their ability, and not run themselves up- on inconveniencies ; for those that marry too young, may be said to marry unseasonably, not considering their inability, nor examining the force of nature ; for though some, before they are ripe for consummation of so weighty a mat- ter, who either rashly of their own accord, or by the iustigation of procurers of marriage-brokers, or else forced thereto by their parents, who co- vet a large dowry, take upon them this yoke to their prejudice, by which some, before the expi- ration of a year, have been so enfeebled, that all their vital, moisture has been exhausted, which hath not been restored again without great trou- ble and the use of medicines. Wherefore my advice is, that it is no ways convenient to suffer children, or such as are not of age, to marry or get children ; hut he that proposes to marry, must observe to chuse a wife of an honest stock, de- scended of temperate parents, being chast, well bred, of good manners. Tor, if a woman have good conditions, she hath portion enough. That of Almcnian in Plutus, is much to the purpose, v here he brings in a young woman speAmg. *' J take not that to be my dowry, which The vulgar sort do wtal'.h .and h'-i.o: call, aristotle's master-pi ice,. 45 But all my wishes terminates in this, To obey my husband and be chaste withal ; To have God's fear and beauty on my mind, "Jo do those good who're viituoudy inclind'd." And I think she was in the right of it, for such a wife is more precious that rubies. It is certainly the duty of parents to be careful in bringing up their children in the w;iys of virtue, and to have regard to their honor and reputation, and especially of virgins, when grown to be marriageable. For, as has been before noted, if through the too much severity of pa-r rents, they may be crossed in their love, many ' of them throw themstlves into the unchaste arms of the next alluring tempter that com* s in the way, being, through the softness and flexibility of their nature, and the strong desire they have after what nature strongly incites them to, essily induced to believe man's false vows of promised marriage, to cover their shame, and then too late their parents repent of their severity, which has brought an undeliable s>tain upon their families. Another error in marriage is, the inequality ofyearsinthe parties married; such as for a young man, who, to advance his fortune, marries a woman old enough to be his grandmother, be- tween whom, for the most part, strife, jealousies, and discontent, are all the blessingB which crown the genial bed, it being impossible for such to "have any children. The like may be said, tho' with less excuse, when an old doating fellow marries a virgin in the prime of youth and vigor., who, while he strives to pkase her, is thereby 4,-t Aristotle's Master-Piece.- wedded to his grave. For, as in green youth it is unfit and unseasonable to think of marriage, so to marry in old age is altogether the same; for they that enter upon it too so©n are soon ex- hausted, and fall into consumptions and divers other diseases, and those that procrastinate and marry unseemly, full into the like inconvenien- cies; on the other side, having only this honor, of an old man they become young cuckolds, es- pecially if their wives have not been trained up in the paths of virtue, and lie too much open to the importunity and temptation of lude and debauch- ed men. Aud thus for the errors of rash, incon- siderate and inconsiderable marriages. CHAP. VIII. The Opinion of the Learned concerning children, con- ceived and born within Seven months, with argu- ments upon the Subject, to prevent susjiicion of In* continency, and bitter contests on that account: To which are* added, Rules to know the desposi- tion of Alan's Body by the Genital parts. ANY bitter quarrels happen between men and their wives, upon the mans supposition that fids child came to soon, and by consequence that he should not be the father ; where as it was through want of understanding the secrets of na- ture, that brought the man into that error ; and which had he known, might have cured htm of his suspicion and jealousy; to remove which, I shall endeavor to prove that it is possible, and has been frequently known, that children have been born at seven months. The cases of this nature that have happened, have made work for lawyers, who have left it to physicians to judge,by view- M Aristotle's Master-Piece. 45 ing the child weather it be a child in seven, eight, or ten months-----Paul, the councellor. has this passage, in the nineteenth book of pleading, viz. It is now a received truth, that a perfect child may be born in the seventh month, by the authority of the learned Ilvpocrates, and there- fore we must believe that a child Lorn at theend . of the seventh month in lawful matiimony, may be lawfully begotted. Calen is of opinion that -jjj there is no certain time set for bearing of chil- i dren ; and that from Pliny's authority, who makes mention of a woman that went thirteen months with child, but as to what concerns the seventh month, a learned author said—I knovx several married people in Holland, that had twins born in the seventh month, who lived to old age,- having tusty bodies, and lively minds. Wherefore their opinion is absurd, who assert- that a child at seven months canno tbi; pt.-rfi.ct and long lived ; and that he cannot, mi all parts be perfect till the ninth month, thereupon 'this au- thor proceeds to tell a passage Iron his own knowledge, viz. Of late says he, there imppened a great disturbance among us, which ended not wifiout bloodshed, and was occasioned bv a Vir- gin whose chastity had been violated, descended of a noted family, of unspotted fame. Now several * charged the fact upon the judge, who was presi- dent of a city in Flanders, vvho stifly denied it, raving, he was ready to take his oath that he ntver had'any carnal copulation with her. that he would not farther that which was none of his. And farther argued, that he verily believed that it was a childborn in seven months, himself being 6+ Aristotle's Master-Piece. many miles distant from the mother of it when it was conceived, whereupon the judges decreed, that thechild should be viewed by able physicians, and experienced women, 8c that they should make their report; who having made diligent enquiry, all of them of one mind, concluded the child (with- out respecting who was the father) was born with- in the space of seven months, and that it was car- ried in the mothers womb but twenty-seven weeks and odd days; but if she should have gone full nine months, the child's parts and limbs would have been more firm and strong, 8c the structure of the body more compact, for the skin was very loose, and the breast-bone that defends the heart and the gristle that layover the stomach lay higher than naturally they should be ; not plain, but crook- ed and sharp ridged, or pointed like those of a young chicken, hatched in the beginning of spring. And being a female,infant it wanted nails upon the joints of the fingers, upon which, from the mascu- lous, or cartilaginous matter of the skin,nails that are very smooth to come, and by degrees harden, she had instead of nails a thin skin or film. As for her toes, there was no sign of nails upon them, wanting the heat which was expanded to the fin- gers, from the nearness of the heart. All this be- ing considered, and above all, one gentlewoman of quality that assisted, affirming that she had been the mother of nineteen children, and that divers of them had been born and lived nt seven months ;- they, without favour to any party, made their* re- port, that the infant was a child of seven months, though within the seventh month, for in such cas- es, the revolution of the moon ought to be observ- Aristotle's Master-Piece. 47 ed, which perfects itself in four bare weeks, or somewhat less than twenty-eight days, in which space of the revolution, the blood being agitated by the force of the moon, ought the courses of the woman to flow from them, which being spent, and the matrix being cleansed from the menstruous blood, which happens on the forth day, then if a man on the seventh day lie with his wife, the cop- ulation is most natural, and then is the conception best, and the child thus begotten may be born in the seventh month, and prove very healthful; So that upon this report the supposed father was pro- nounced innocent, upon proof that ht was one hun- dred miles distant all that month in which the child was begotten; and as for the mother, she strongly .denied that she knew the father, being forced in the dark, and so through fear and surpize was left in ignorance. « As for coition, it ought not to be had unless the parties be in health, lest it turn to the disadvan- tage of the children so begotten, creating in them thro' the abundance of ill humors, divers lan- guishing diseases, wherefore health is no way bet- ter to be discerned than by the genitals of the man. For which reason midwives, and other skiiful wo- men, where formerly wont to see the testicles of children, thereby to conjecture their temperture and state of the body ; and young men may know thereby the surri'i oi symptoms of death; forif the cases of the testicils ix loose 8c feeble,fc the coos tall down it denots, that the vital spirits, v. hich are the props of life, are fallen ; but if the secret parts be wrinkled and raised up it is a sign all is well ; but that the cveut may exactly ansv.e:- the pcrjUc- 48 Aristotle's Master-Piece, tion, it is necessary to consider what part of the body the disease•possesseth ; for if it chance to be the upper part that is afflicted, as the head or stomach, then it will not so well appear by the members, "which are unconcerned with such grievances ; but the lower part of the body exact- ly sympathizing with them their liveliness on the contrary makes it apparent; for nature's force, and the spirits that have their intercourse, first mani- fest themselves therein, which occasion midwives to feel the genitals of children, to know in what part the grief is resided, and whether life or death be portended thereby, the symptoms being strong- ly communicated by the vessels, that have their intercourse with the, principal seat of life. CHAP. IX. , Of the Green Sickness in Virgins, with its Causes, S/gns, and Cures ; together with the chief occa- sion of Barreness of I Toman, and the means to remove the Cu:iseyand render them Fruitful: THE Green Sickness is so common a distem- per in Virgins especially those of phlegmat- ic complexion, that it is easily discerned shewing itself by discoulering the face, making it look green, pale and of a dusty couler : preceding from raw and indigested humours ^nor cloth it only ap- pear to the eye, but sensibly afflicts the person, with dfficuities of breathings, pains in the head, palpitations of the heart, with unusual breathings, and small throbbings of the arteries \\\ the tem- ples, neck, and back, which often ca^ts them into aristotle's master-piece. 49 fevers.When the humour is over vicious; also loath ing of meat, & the distension of the hvpochondican part, by reason of the inordinant tflluction of the menstrous blood to the greater vessels ; and, from the abundance of humours, the whole body Is often troubled with swelling, or at least the thighs, legs, and ancles, all above the heels. There is also a great weariness of the body, without any reason for it. The Galenical physicians affirm, that this dis- temper proceeds from the womb, occasioned by the abundance of gross, vicious and rude humours arising from several inward causes; but there are, also, outward causes, which have a share in the production of it; as taken cold in the feet, drink- ing of water, intemperance of diet, eating of things contrary to nature, viz. raw or burned flesh, ashes, coals, old shoes, chalk, wax, nut-shells,mor- tar, line, oat-meal, tobacco-pipes 8cc. which occa- sion both a suppression of the menses, and ob- structions through the whole body ; therefore, the first thing necessary to vindicate the cause is ma- trimonial conjunction, and such copulation as may prove satisfactory to her that is afflicted ; for, then the menses will begin to flow, according to their na- tural and due course, and the humours being dis- persed, will soon waste themselves ; and then no more matter being admited to increase them, they will vanish, and a good temperament of body will return ; put, in c.-.se this best remedy cannot be had soon enough, then blood her in the ancles; and if she be about the age of sixteen, you may likewise do it in the arm, but let her blood but sparingly es- pecially if the blood be good. If the i isease be of F 50 Aristotle's Mastee-Piece, any continuance, then it is to be eradicated by pur- ging, preparation of the humour first considered, wliich may be done by the virgin's drinking decoct of guiacam,with dittanyofCreete: but the best purge in this case ought to be made of a.oes, agric, sen- na, rhubarb ; and for strengthening the bowels and opening obstructions, chalybeat medicines are chiefly to be used. The diet must be moderate,and sharp things by all means avoided. And for find- ing the humours, take prepared'steel, bezoar ston^, the root of sconzoncra, oil of chrystalin small wine, and let tiie diet be moderate but in no wise let vinegar be used therewith nor upon any occasion. And in so observing, the humours will be dilated l.nd dispersed, whereby the complexion wilireturn, and the body be lively and full of vigour. And now, since barrenness daily creates discon- tent, and that discontent breeds difference be- tween man and wife, or, by immediate grief, fre- quently casis the women into one or other distem- per, I shall in the next place treat thereof. Of Barrenness. Formerly; before woman came to the marriage- bed, they were first serched by the midwife, and those only which she allowed of as fruitful were admitted. I hope, therefore, it will not be amiss to .shew you how they i.iay pio/e themselves, end turn the barren ground into a fruitful soil. l.V. - renness is a deprivation of life and power, which ought to be in seed, to procreate and piop.igc-.ee— for which end men and women were ^.i:vi j, Causes of Barrenness.----It is caused, by over- much cold or he a'c, drhing up the s.-'cd, und cor- rupting it, whic'.i. ixting,:'-<:h<;-; :\vc lite oi" the seed. aristotle's master-piece. 51 makmgit wateiish, and unfit for generation.—It may be caused also by not flowing, or overflowing of the courses, by swelling, ulcers, and inflamma- tions of the womb, by an excrescence of flesh grow- ing about the matrix, by the mouth of the womb being turned to the back or side, by fatness of the ■body, whereby the mouth of the mstrix is closed up, being pressed with the omentum or cawl, and the matter of the seed is turned too fat; or, if she be of a lean and dry body to the world, she proves-barren ; because, though she doth" conceive, yet the fruit of her body will wither before it C(?,m.es to P: >f?ctitjni ^ want of nourishment.— Silvius £ scribes one cause of barrenness to compel- led copul .tion: as when parents force their daugh- ters to have husbands contrary to their liking, therem marrying the ir bodies and not their hearts, and where there is a want of love, there, for the most p^rt, is no conception, as very often appears in women which are deflowered against their wills. Another nr. in cause of this barrenness is attributed to want of a convenient moderating quality which the woman ought to have with the man; as, if he be hot, she must be cold ; if he be dry, she must he moist; but if they be both dry, or both moist of constitution, they cannot, propagate; and vet, simply considered of themselves, thev ;-.re not bar- ren ; for he and she, who were before as the bi r- ren fig-tree, being joined to an apt constitution,' become is the fruitful vire. And, that a man and woman being evj-ry w- v of like constitution, can- not procreate, I will bring n.ture itself for a testi- mony, who hath made man of the better constitu- tion than woman, that the qua'fry of the one may moderate the quality of the other. 52 aristotle's masler-piec*. Signs of Barrenness. If barrenness doth procede from over-much heat, she is of a dry body, subject to anger, hath black hair, quick pulse, her purgations flow but little and that with pain, she loves to play in the courts of Venus. But if it comes by cold, then are the signs contrary to those even now recited. If through the evil quality of the womb, make a sufl- umigation of red storax, myrrh, cassia wood, nut- meg, and cinnamond, and lether recieve the fume of it into the womb, covering her very close ; and if the odour so recieved, passeth through the body up into the mouth and nostrils, of herself she is fruitful; but if she feals not the fume in her mouth and nose, it argues barrenness one of these ways, that the spirit of the seed is either through cold extinguished, or through heat disipated; If any woman be suspected to be unfruitful, cast natural brimstone, such as are digged out of the mine, in her urin and if worms breed therein, of herself she is not barren, Prognostics. Barrenness makes woman look young, because they are free from those pains and sorrows which other woman are accustomed to bring forth v. ith- all.—Yet they have not the full perfection of health which fruitful woman do enjoy ; because they are not rightly purged of the menstrous blood and su- pcrflous seed which two are the principal causes of most uterine diseases. CURE- First the cause must be removed, and the womb Aristotle's Master-piece. 3C> strengthened, and the sp;rits of the seed enlivened. If the womb be over-hot, take surrup of succory with rhubarb, syrup of violets endive, roses, cassia, and purslain. Take of endive, water-iiliics, borage flowers, of each a handful; rhubarb, mirobalan, of of each three drams ; with water make a decoction, and to the straining of the syrup, electuary of vio- lets one ounce,syrup of cassia half an ounce, manna three drams; make a potion. Take of syrup of mugwartone ounce, syrup of maidenhare two oun- ces, ; puly, elect, triansandone dram, make a julep. Take pru. salut, elect, ros. measure of each three drams, rhubarb one scrapie, and make a boius, apply to the reins and privities fomentations of the juice of le..lice, violet roses, mallows, vine-lea'ses and nightshade; anoint the secret parts with the cooling unguent of Galen. If the power of the seed be extinguished by cold take every morning two spoonfuls of cinnamond water, v.ith one scruple of mythridate: Take syr- up of calamint, mugwortbetony, of each one ounce; waiter of penny-royal, feverfew, hysop, sage, of each two ounces, make a julep : Take oil of aniseed two scrupels and a half, diaciminia, diucliathi, dia- mosci, diaglaangae, of each one ounce, sugar four ounces of water of cinnamond, make lozeages, and take of them a dram and a half twice a day, two hours before meals ; fasten cupping glasses to the hips and beily Take of sty rax of caliment, one ounce ; mastic cinnamon, light, aloes, and frankin- cense, of each half an ounce, musk ten grains, ara- bergrrase half a scrupei, with rose water make a c ■ ,v.v.'.r.tion, divide it into four equal parts, of one purt ma!:; a penuun odoratum to smell on, if she 54 artstotle's master-piece, be not hysterical; of the second make a mass of piiis and let her take three every night; of the third make a pessary dip it in the oil of spikenard, and put it up ; of the fourth make a sufTumigation for the womb. If the faculties of the wouib be weakened, and the life of the seed suffocated by over much humid- ity flowing to these parts, Take of betony, mar- joram, mugwort penny-royal, balm of each a hand- ful, roots of allom, fennel of each two drams, ani- seed, curaming of each one dram, with sugar and water a sufficient quantity, make a syrup, and take three ounces every morning. If barrenness proced from dryness, consuming the matter of the seed—take every day almond- milk, and goat's milk extracted with honey. But often of the root satyron candied, and of the electu- ary of diasyron. Take three wedders' heads boil them until the flesh comes from the bones,'then take m'eliot, violets, camomile mercury, orchis with their roots, of each a handful fesnigreek, lint seed vale rian roots, of ev.ch one pound let those be decocted in the aforesaid broth, and let the woman sit in the decoction, up to the navel. I f barrenness be caused by any proper effect of the womb, the cure is set down in the second part; sometimes the womb proves barren when there is no impediment on either side except only the manner of the act as when iu the emision of the seed, the man is cj lick and the womsn too slow, whereby there is not any emision of both seeds at the same instant as the rules of conception requires before the acts ofcoiiion, foment the private parts with the decoction '! betony, sage, hysop, and cala- * Aristotj's Mastr-Pic. 55 mint; and anoint the mouth and neck of the womb with musk and civet. The cause of barrenness being removed, let the womb be corroborated .as follows : Take of b.iy-berries, mastic nutmeg, frankin- sance, nuts, laudanum, gaipunum, of each one dram, styrasis liquid two scrupels, cloves half a sc.rupel amhergrese two grains, then with oil of spikenard make a pessary. The aptest time for conception is instantly after the mensis are ceased, because then the womb is thursty and dry, apt to draw the seed and return it by the roughtness of the inward superfi- cies. And beside in some the mouth of the womb is turned kito the back or side, and is not placed right until the day of the courses. Excess in all things is to be avoided; lay aside all passion of the mind, shun study and care, as things that are enemies to conception ; for if a woman conceives under such circumstances, how -wise soever the parents are, the children, at best, will be but foolish, because the animal faculties of the parents, viz. the understanding and the rest (from whence the child derives its reason) are, as it were, confused, through the multiplicity of cares and cogitations; examples hereof we have in learn- ed men, who, after great study and care, instantly accompany wiih their wives, often beget very fool- ish children. A hot and moist air is convenient, as appears by the woman of Egypt, who usually bring forth three or four children at "one-time. 56 Aristotle's Master-Piece. CHAP. X. Virginity, what it is, in what it consists, and how violated ; together with the Opinion of the Learn- ed about the Mutation of the Sex in the Womb, du- ring the Operation of JYature in framing the Body. THERE are many ignorant people that boast of their skill in their knowledge of virginity, and some virgins have undergone hard censures through their ignorant determinations ; and, there- fore,! thought it highlynecessary to clear this point, that the towering imaginations of conceited igno- rance may be brought down,and the fair sex (whose virtues are so illustriously bright, that they both excite our wonder, and command our imitation) may be freed from the calumnies and detractions of ignorance and envy ; and so th^ir honours may continue as unspotted as they have kept their per- sons uncontaminated, and free from defilement. Virginity, in a strict sen=e, does signify the prime, the chief, the best of any thing, which make men so desirous of marrying virgins, ima- gining some secret pleasure to be enjoyed in their embraces, more than in those of widows, or such as before hath bi en laid withal, though not mmy years a>;o, a very great person was of another mind, and to use his own expressions, " that tire getting of a " nv.ndcn head w?.s such a piece of drudgery,as was " more proper for a porter than a pr'nee." But this was only his opinio;), for most men, I am sure, have other sentiments. But to our purpose. The curious inquirer's into nature \> st.v.i'ei.s hive observed, that in young maids, in the sinu pw:oris? or in that place which is called the neck of the won?!), is that pondous production vulgar! called Aristotle's Master-Piece. 57 the hymen, but more rightly the claustrum virgi- nale, and in the French, " button de rose," or rose bud, because it resembles the bud of a rose ex- panded, of a conve gilly-Hower. From hence is derived the word defloro, or deflower. And hence taking away virginity is Called deflowering a virgin. Most being of opinion, that the virginity is alto- gether lost when this duplication is fractured and dissipated by violence ; and when it is found per- fect and entire, no penetration has been made ; and it is the opinion of some learned physicians, that there is not either hymen or skin expanded, con- taining blood in it, which divers think in the first copulation flows from the fractured expanse. Now, this claustrum virginale, or flower, is con. posed of four carbuncles or little buds, like myrtle- berries, which in virgins arc full and plump, but in women flag and hang loose ; and these are placed in the four angles of the sinus pudoi is joined toge- ther by little membranes and ligatures like fibres, each of them situated in the testicles, or spaces be- tween each carbuncle, with which, in a manner, they are proportionably distended, which mem- branes being once delacerated, denote devirgina- tion ; and many inquisitive, and yet ignorant per- sons, finding their wives defective herein the first night of their marriage, have thereupon suspected their chastity, and concluded another had been there before them. Now, to undeceive such, I do affirm, that such fractures happen di\ ers accidental ways, as well as by copulation with men, viz. by violent straining, coughing, sneezing, stopping of urine, and violent motion of the vessels forcibly sending down the humours, which pressing for 58 Aristotle's Master-Piece. passage, break the ligatures or membrane ; so that the intireness of fracture of that which is com- monly taken for their virginity or maiden-head, ia not an absolute sign of dishonesty ; though, cer- tain it is, that it is more frequently broke in copu- lation than by any other me.-.ns. Thave he. rd, that at an assize held at Rutland, a young man was tried for a rape, in forcing a vir- gin ; when, after divers questions asked, and the maid swearing positively to the matter, iv.uiiing the time, place, and manner of the action ; it was, upon mature deliberation, re sol. ed, that she should be searched by ^ skilful surgeon and two mid-' wives, who were to make tlieir report upon their oaths : which, after due examination, they accord- ingly did, affirming, that the membrane were en- tire, and not delacerated ; and that it was their opinion, for that reason, that her body had not been penetrated. Which so fi.r wrought with the :ury, that the prisoner was acquitted ; and the maid af- terwards confessed,-she swore against him out of revenge, he having promised to marry her, find af- terwards declined it. And this much shall suffice to be spoken concerning virginity. I shall now proceed to something of nature's operation in mutation of sexes in the womb. This point is of much necessity, by reason of the different opinions of men relating to it, there- fore, before any thing positively can be asserted, it will be altogether convenient to recite v/hat has been delivered, as well in the negative as affirma- tive. And, first, Severus Plinus, who argues for the negative, writes thus :—The genital parts of both sexes are so unlike others in substance, com- Aristotle's Master-Piece. "59 position, situation, figure, action and use, that no- thing is more" unlike ; and by how much more all parts of the body (the breasts accepted, which in women swell more, because nature ordained them for suckling the infant) have exact resemblance ; so much more do the genital parts of the one sex com- pared with the other differ: and if their figure be thus different, much more in their use. The vene- real appetite also proceeds from different a uses ; for in man it proceeds from a desire of emission, and in woman from a desire of reception ; in wo- men, also, the chief of those parts are concave, and apt to receive ; but in men they are more porous. These things considered, I cannot but wonder (added he) how any one can imagine th-.-t the ge- nital members of the female births should be changed unto those that belong to males, since by those parts only the distinction of sexes is m.idc ; nor can I well impute the reason of this vulgar er- ror to any thing, but the mistake of unexpert mid- wives, who have been deceived by the evil confor- mation of the parts, which in some male births may have happened to have some small protrusions, not to have hi en discerned ; as ippcara by the ex- ample of a child christened at Paris by the name of Jean as a girl, which afterwards proved a boy ; and, on the contrary, the over-far extension .if the clytoi!.-; in *emaie births, may have occasicred the like mistakes.—Thus far Pliny proceeds in the negative ; And yet notwithstanding what he has said, there arc divers learned physicians that have asserted, the a!':!rm.itive, of which number 11. J' n is one. A man (saith he) is different from a woman in nothing else but having his genital ineveu-vs 60 Aristotle's Master-Piece. without the body ; but a woman hath them within. It is certain, that if nature having formed, should convert him into a woman ; she hath no other task to perform, but to turn his genital members inward, and so turn a woman into a man by the contrary operation, but this is to be understood of the child when it is in the womb, and not perfectly formed ; for, divers times nature hath made a female, and it hath so remained in the womb of the mother for near a month or two, and afterward, plenty of heat increasing in the genital members,they have issued forth, and the child has become a male, yet retain- ing some certain gestures unbefitting the mascu- line sex; as female actions, a shrill voice, and a more effeminate temper than ordinary ; contrary- wise, nature having often made a male, and cold humours flowing to it, the genitals being inverted, yet still retaining a masculine air both in voice and gestures. Now, though both these opinions are supported by several reasons, yet I esteem the lat- ter more agreeable to truth ; for, their is not that vast difference between the genitals of the two sex- es, as Pliny would have irs to believe there is ; for, a woman has, in a manner, the same members with the man, tho' they appear not outward, but are inverted, for the eonveniency of generation ; the c*Jef difference being, that the one is solid, and ti,r: other porous ; and the principal reason for changing sexes is, and must be attributed to heat or co'd, suddenly and slowly contracted, which operate* according to its greater or lesser.force. Aristotle's Master-Piece. 6>i CHAP. XI. Directions and Cautions for Midwives, and how frst a Midwife ought to be qualified. A MIDWIFE that would acquit herself well in her employment, ought by no means to en- ter upon it rashly or unadvisedly, but with great caution, considering that she is accountable for all the mischief that befalls through her wilful ignor- ance or neglect; therefore, let none take upon them the office barely upon pretence of maturity of years and child bearing, for in such, for the most part, there are divers things wanting that ought to be observed, which is the occasion so ma- ny women and children are lost. ^Vow, for a mid- wife, in relation to her person, these things ought to be observed, viz. She must neither be too young nor too old, neither extraordinary fat, nor Weak- ened by leanness ; but in a good habit of body ; not subject to diseases, fears nor sudden fi ights ; her body well-shaped, and neat in her attire ; her hands smooth and small ; her nails ever pared short, not suffering any rings to be upon her finger during the time she is doing her office, nor any thing upon her wrists that may obstruct. And to these ought to be added activity, and a convenient strength, with much cautiousness and diligence ; not subject to drowsiness, nor apt to be impatient. As for her manners, she ought to be courteous, affable, sober, chaste, and not subject to passion, bountiful and compassionate to the poor, and not covetous when she attends upon the rich. ; Her temper cheai ful and pleasant, that she may the better comfort her patient in the dolorous la- F 62 Aristotle'sMasteR-Piece. bors; nor must she at any time make too much haste, though her business should require her in another case, lest she thereby endanger the mo- ther of the child. Of spirit, she ought to be wary, prudent, and Gunning ; but above all, the fear of God ought to have the ascendant in her soul, which will give her both knowledge and discretion, as the Wise Man tells us. CHAP. XII. Further Directions for Midwives, teaching them what they ought to do, and what to avoid. SINCE the office of a midwife has so great an influence on the well or ill-doing of women and children—in the first place, let her be advan- tageous to her practice, never thinking herself so perfect but that she may add to her knowledge by study and experience ; yet, never let her make an experiment at her patient's cost, nor apply any experiment in that case, unless she has tried them, or knows they will do no harm; practising neither upon poor nor rich, but speaking freely what she knows, and by no means prescribing such medi- cines as will cause abortion, though desired; which is a high degree of wickedness, and may be termed murder. If she be sent for to them she knows not, let her be ,very cautious ere she goes, lest by laying an infectious woman, she en- d_mger the spoiling of others, as sometimes it happens; neither must she make her house a re- cept-.icle for great-bellied women to discharge their burdens in, lest her house get an ill name, and she thereby lose her practice. Aristotle's Master-Piece. 63 In laying of women, if the birth happen to be large and difficult, she must not seem to be con- cerned, but' must chear up the woman, and do what she can to make her labour ea^y. lor which she may find directions in the secoud part of this book. She must never think of any thing but doing well, causing all things to be in readiness that are proper for the work, and the Strengthening of the woman, and receiving the child; and above all let her take care to keep the woman from being unruly when her throes are coming upon her, lest she thereby endanger her own life and the child's. She must also take care she be not too hasty in her business but wait God's leisure for the birth ; and by no means let her suffer herself to be dis- ordered by fear, though things should uot go well, lest it should make her incapable of giving that assistance which the labouring woman stands in need of; for, when we are most at a-loss, then there is most need of prudence to set things right. And now, because she can never be- a skilful midwife that knows nothing but what is to be seen outwardly, I shall not think it amisfe. l>U!t,,,ftn the contrary, highly necessary, with modesty to" describe the generative parts of women, as they have been anatomized by the learned, and shew the use of such vessels as contribute to generation. CHAP. XIII. Of the Genitals of Women, external and internal, to the Vessels of the Womb. IF it were not for public benefit, especially of the practitioners and professors of the art of 64 aristotle's master-piece. midwifery, I would forbear to treat of the secrets of nature, because they may be turned, by some lascivious, and lewd persons into ridicule. But they being absolutely necessary to be known in order to public good, I will not omit thtm be- cause some may make a wrong use of them. Those parts that offer themselves to view at the bottom of the belly, are the fissura magnaor, great chink, with its labia or lips, the mons vene- ris, and the hair ; these are called by the general name pudenda, from shame-facedness, because when they are bare, they bring pudor or shame upon a wonnn. The fissura magna reaches from the lower part of the os pubis to within an inch ofthfc anus, but it is lesser andclo er in m:iids thin in those that have borne children ; and has two lips, which, towards the pupis grow theker and m >re full ; an t meeting upon th? m ddle of the os pupis, makes that rising hill that is called mons veneris, or the hill of Venus. The next thing that offers are, the nympha and clytoris, the former of which is of a membtany and flammy substance, spungy, saft, and partly fleshy, and of a red colour, in the shape of wings, two in number, though, from their rise, they are placed in an acute angle, producing there a fleshy substance, which clothe the clytoris; and some- times they spread so far, that incision is required to make way for the man's instrument of gene- ration. The clytoris is a substance in the upper part of the division where the two wings concur, and is the seat of venereal pleasure, being like a yard in Aristotle's Master-Piece. 65 situation, substance, composition and erection ; growing sometimes.out of the b )dy two inches, but that never happens u.dess through extreme lust, or extraordinary accidents. This clytoris consists of two spungy and skinny bodies, con- taining a distiuct original from the os pubis, the head of it being covered with a tender skin, hav- ing a hole or passage like the penis or yard of a man ; though not quite through, in which, and the bigness, it only differs from it. The next things are fleshy knobs, and the g-t\ t neek of the womb; and these knobs are behind the wir.gs, being four in number, and resemble myrtle-berries, being placed quadrangular, one against the other; and in this place insetted to the orifice of the bladder, which opens itself into the fissures, to evacuate the urine ; for securing of which from the cold, or the like inconvenitney, one of these knobs is placed before it, and shuts up the passage. The lips of the womb, that next appear, being separated, disclose the neck thereof, and in the two things are to be observed, which is the neck itself, and the hymen, but more properly tbeclaus* trum virginale, of which before I have discours- ed. By the neck of the womb is to be understood the channel that is between the aforesaid knobs and the inner bone of the womb, which receives the penis like a sheath ; and that it may the better ■ be dilated for the pleasure of procreation, the substance of it is sinewy, and a little spongy; and in this concavity are divers folds, or obicular plaits made up tunicles, wcinklcd like an expanded rose. 66 Aristotle's Master-Piece. In virgins they plainly appear, but in women that have often used copulation, they are extinguish- ed ; so that the inner side of the womb's neck ap- pears smooth, and in old women it appears more hard and gristled. But though tfiis chanm 1 be at sometimes wreathed and crooked, sinking down, yet, in the time of copulation, labour, or the monthly purgations, it is erected and extend- ed, which over-extensions occasion the pains of child-birth. The hymen, or clanstrum virginale, is that which closes the neck of the womb, beirg, as I have fore-cited in the chapter relating to virginity, broken in the first copulation, its use being rather to stay the untimely courses in virgins, than to any other end; and commonly, when broken in copulation, or by any other accident, a small quantity of blood flows from it, attended with some little pain. From whence some observe, that between the duplicity of the two tunicles, which constitute the neck of the womb, there are many veins and arteries running along and aris- ing from the vessels on both sides of the thigh, and so passing into the neck of the womb, being very large, and the reason thereof is, for that the neck of the bladder requires to be filled with abun- dance of spirits thereby to be dilated for its bet- ter taking hold of the penis, there being great heat required in such motions, which become more intense by the act of frication, and con- sumes a considerable quantity of moisture, m the supply of which large vessels are altogether neces- sary. aristotle's master -?iece. 67 Another cause of the longr iess of these vessels is, by reason the menses mak e their way through them, which often occasions \ vomen with child to continue their purgation, for • though the womb be shut up. yet the passage in tl ie neck of the womb through which the vessels ps iss, are open : In tiiis case there is further to be o! ^served, that as soon as you penetrate the pudend' am, there appear two little pitsor holes wherein is contained an humour, which being expunged in tl: ie time of copulation, greatly delights the woman. CHAP. > ;iv. A Description of the Womb' s Fabric, the preparing Vessels, and, Testicles in Women ; )as also of the Difference and ejaculatory i Vessels. IN the lower part of the h> -pogastrium, where the lips are widest and broa( lest, they being greater and borader thereabout t! iian those of men, for which reason they have lik .ewise broader buttocks than men, the womb is jo ined to its neck, and is p aced between the bladder and strait gut, which keeps it from swaying or* rowling, yet gives it liberty to stretch and dilate, itself again to contract, nature in that case disposing it. Its figure is in a manner round, and not unlake a gourd, lessening a little and growing more acute toward:, one end, being knit together by its proper ligaments; its neck likewise is joined by its own substance and certain membranes that fasten unto the os sacrum. and the share.bone: As to its largeness that much differs in women, especially the difference is great between such as have borne children, and those that have borne none. In substance it is so thick that it exceeds a thimble breadth, which after 68 Aristotle's master-piece. copulation is so far from decreasing, that it aug- . ,mtnts to a greater proportion, and the more to strengthen it, it is interwoven with fibres over- thwart, wh c.h are both straight and winding, ar.d « its proper vessels are veins, arteries and nerves, and among these there are two little veins which : pass from the spermatick vessels to the bottom of the womb, and two larger from the hypostatic, which touch both the bottom of the neck, the mouth of these veins, piercing as far as the inward concavity. The womb hathfwo arteries on both sides the spermatick vessels and the hypostatic, which will accompany the veins ; and besides there are divers little nerves, that are knit and twined in the form ofa net, which are also extended throughout, even fom the bottom of the pudenda, themselves be- ing placed chiefly for sense'and pleasure, moving in sympathy between the head and the womb. Now it is to be further noted, that by reason of the two ligaments that hang on either side the womb from the share bone, piercing through the pritoneum, and joined to the bone itself'.the womb is moveable upon sundry occasions, often falling low or rising high. As for the neck of the womb, it is of an exquisite feeling, so that if it be at any time out of oider, being tjoubled at any time with a schirrosity, over-fttness,moisture,or relaxation, the womb is subjected thereby to barrenness ; in tho!»e that are with child there frequently stays'a glutinous matter in the entrance to facilitate the bivtii ; for at the time of delivery, the mouth of the womb is opened to such a wideness as is con- formable to the bigness of th^ child, suffering nn equal dilation from the bottom to the top. Aristotle's Master-Piece .; 69 lC vessels in two arteries only of their - the number \n men, the of the hollow them are two As for the preparatory or spermat women, they consist of two veins and not differing from those of men, but largeness and manner of insertion, foi of veins and arteries is the same as right vein issut >g from the trunk vein descending, and on the side of artines, which grow from the aorta. As to the length and breadth of the are narrower and shorter in women only observe, they are more wrer forled than in men, as shrinking U igether by-rea son of their shortness, that tt.ey may, by tI,e,r looseness be b-tter stretched out requires it; and those vessels in r^dwi'h an indirect course throug the teslicles, but are in midway branches, the greater goes to the ing a various or wi iding body, inosculating,*he lessor branch en. in the insid; of wliich it dispers pecially at the higher part of womb for its nourishment, anc courses m*y purge through the the testicles of women are seat for that cause these vessels fall tonoeum, neither make they n men, nor extending themselves The stones in women commi perform not the same action : also different in their location,b substance, form and covering. their seU, it is in the hollownt neither are they pendulous, bu cles ot tht loins, so that they r the greater heat,be more fruit! jse vessels they , than in men ; ithed and com* when occasion women are car- ti the lesser guts, divided into two stones, constitut- ed wonderfully jing iu the wvmb^ eth itself, anc< cs- the bottom of the I that part of the; vessels; and seeing id near the womb, not from the peri- mch passage as in ; in the share bone, inly called testicles, as in men, they are gness,temperature, As for the place of ss of the abdotnen ; t rest upon the mus- nay, by contracting id, their office being 70 Aristotle's master-piece. to contain the ova or eggs, one of which beirjg im- pregnated by the man's seed engenders man, yet they differ fiom thost of men in figure, by reason of then lesrness or flatness at each end, not bting so round or owl. The external superfices being likewise, more unequal, appearing like the compo- sition of a gfeat many knobs and kerntls mixt to- gether. Theie is a difference also in their sub- stance ihey being much more soft and pliable, loose and not so well compacted. .' Ther b.'gness and temperament being likewise different,.for they are much colder and lesser than thosr iu men. As for their covering or inclosure, it differs extrtmels ; for as mens are wrapped in diveis tuiicles,, by reason they are extremely pen- dulous, and subject to divers injuries., unless so fenced by nature; so women's stones being in- ternal, and. less subject to casualty, are covered with one tsjnicle or membrane, which though it closely cleave to them, yet they are likewise half covered w'th peritonceum. The ejaculatory vessels are two obscure pas- sages one on each side, , nothing differing from the spermatick veins in substance: They do rise on one part from.the bottom of the womb, not reaching from the other extremity, either to the stones, or to any other part, but shut up and un- passable, adhering to the womb as the colon does to. the blind gut, and windiig half way about : though the testicles are remote to them.and touch them not yet they are tied to them bycertain mem- branes resembling the wing of a bat.through which certain veins and arteries passing through the end of the testicles, may be turned here to have their passages proceeding from the corner of the womb o the testicles, and. are accounted proper lma- Aristotle's master-piece. 71 ments, by which the testicles and-the womb are uni- ted,and strongly kint together ; and those ligaments in women are the cremasters in men : of which i shall speak more largely, when I cometo des- cribe the masculine parts conducing to generation. CHAP. XV. A description of the use and action of several parts in Woman, appointed in Generation. THE externals, commonly called the penden- da, are designed to cover the great orifice, and that are to receive the penis or yard, in the act of coition, and give passage to the birth arid urine. The use of the wings and knobs like myrtle ber- ries, are for the security of the internal parts, shut- ting the orifice and neck of the bladder, and by their swelling up, cause titulation and delight; in those parts, and also to obstruct the voluntary passage of the urine. The action of the clytoris in women, is like that of a penis in man,viz. the erection,and its outer end like that of the glans of the penis, and has the same name. And as the gians of man is the seat of the greatest pleasure in conception,so is this in women. The action and use of the neck of the womb is equal with that of the penis, viz. erection, occa- sioned divers ways, first in copulation it is erected and made strait for the passage of the penis in the womt)—secondly, whilst the passage is repleted with spirit and vital blood, it becomes more strait for embracing the penis; and as for the conveni- ency of erection, it is two-fold—First, because if the neck of the womb was not erected, the yard *o.uld have no convenient passage to the wmob : 72- ' Aristotle's Master-Piece. Secondly it hinders any hurt or damage that might ensue th rough the violent concussion of the yard, during the time of copulation. As for the veins that pass through the neck of the womb, their vo'ceis to replenish it with blood and spf.rit, that still as the moisture con fume* by the heat contracted in copulation, it may by these vessels, be renewed ; but their chief business is to convev nutriment to the womb. The womb has many properties attributed to it. As first, rentention of the fcecundated egg, and this is properly called conception. Secondly, to cherish and nourish it till nature has framed the child, and brought it to perfection, and then it strongly operates in sending forth the birth, when the lime of its remaining there is expirtd, dilating itself in a wonderful manner, and so aptly removed from the senses, that nothingpf injury can proceed from thence ; retaining to itself a power and strength to operate and cast forth the birth, unless by accident it be rendered deficient ; and then to strengthen and enable it, remedies must be applied by skilful hands, directions for the applying of which shall be given in the second part.' The use of the preparing vessel is this, the ar- teries convey the blood of the testicles ; part where- of is put in nourishment of them, and the produc- tion of those little bladders (in all things resem- bling eggs) through which the vasa preparuntia I *uns, and are obliterated in them ; and as for the v tins their office is to biing back what blood re- main* fiom the use aforesaid. The vessels of this kind are much shorter in wo- men than in men, by reason of their nearness to the stones, which defects is yet made good by the njany intricate windings to which those vessels are aristotle's master-piecb- 73 Subject; for in the middle way they divide them- selves into two branches, though different In mag- nitude, for one being greater than the other passes to the stones. The stones in woman are very useful, for where they are defective ; generation work is at an end ; for although these bladders which are on their outward superfices contain nothing of seed, as the followers of Galen and Hippocrates did'erroniously imagine yet they contain several eggs, generally 20 (in which testicle) one of each being impreg- nated by the spiritous part of the man's seed in the act of coition, desends through the oviducts in the womb, and from hence in the process of time be, comes a living child. CHAP. XVI. Of the Organs of Generation of Man. HAVING given you a des:ription of the or- gans of generation in woman, with the ane- tony of the fabric of the womb; I shall now (to compleatthe first part of this treatise) describe the orgins of generation in man, and how they are. fitted to the use for which nature designed them- The instrument of generation in man (commonly called the yard ; and in Lattin, penis a pedendo be- cause it hangs without the belly) is an organical part, which consists of skin, tendons veins, arteries, sinews and great ligaments ; and is long and round, and on the upper side ffatish, seated under the ossa pubis, and ordained by nature partly by evacuation of urine, and partly for conveying the seed into the matrix ; for whicii end it is full of small pores through whLh the seed passes into it, through the vepicula seminalis, and also the neck of the ve- 74 Aristotle's Master-Piece. sicula urinalis' which pours out the urine when they make water; besides the common parts as caticuk-, the -kin and the membrana carnos it hath these proper internal p, rts, viz. The two nervous bouies, the septum, the urethera, the glans, four muscles, and the vessels. The nervous bodies (so called) are surrouuded with a thick white previ- ous membrane, but their inmost substance is spun- gy, consisting chiefley of veins, arteries andner- vous fibres intervoven together like a net; and when the nerves are tiled with animal spirits, and the arteries with hot and spiritous blood, then the penis is distended and becomes erect; but when the influx of dead spirits ceases, then the biooa and remaining spirits limber and grow flag- gy ; below these nervous bodies is the uthera, and whenever the nervous bodies swell, it swells also. The muscles of the penis are four, two shorter rising from the coxendix, and serving its erection, and for that reason are called erectors ; two large proceeding from the spinter of the anus and serve to dilate the uretra ejaculation of seed ; and are called dilatantes, or winding. ' At the end of the penis is the glands covered with a very thin membrane ; by means of which and its nerv- ous.subst.!.:iCe, it becomes more exqusitely sensible, and is t.-c principal seat of pleasure in copulation. Tde utmost covering of the glans is called proepu- tiuin a perputondo from being cut off, being that whi< n the jews cut off in circumsision, and it is tied by tha lower part of it to the glands of the foetus, Th penis is ulso stocked with veins, arteries and nerves, The testieuli or stones (so called) because testi- fying one to be a man; elaborate the blood brought to thtrri by the spermatic arteries into seed. They Aristotle's Master-Piece. 75 have coats of two sorts, propper and common; the common are two' and invest both the testes. The outermost of the common coats consists of the cti- cula, or true skin ; and is called the scrotum, hang- ing out of the abdomen like a purse, the inermast is the membran, carnosa; the proper coats are also two, tne outer called eliotrodes or virginals ; the inner albugidia, into the outer is inserted the crenu.ster : the upper p^rts of the testes is fixed ; epidimydes, or pasuta, from whence arise the vassa differentia, or ejaculatory which when they come near the neck of the bladder, deposit the seed into the vesicule femmiales, these vesicule feminiales, are two, each like a bunch of grapes, and emit the seed into the urethera, in the act of copulation. Near them are the prostrate, about the bigness of a walnut and join to the neck of the bladder. Authors cannot agree about the use of them ; but most are of opinion, that they afford an oily sloppy and fit humour to besmere the urethera, whereby to defend the same from the acrimony of the seed and urine. But the vessels which convey the blood to the testes out of which the seed is,m -de arartriae sperm?.ticae, and are also two. The veins which carry out the remaining blood are two, and have the name of venae spermatcae. CHAP. XVII. A Word of Advice to both Sexes; Being several Directions respecting Copulation. SINCE nature has implanted in every creature a mutual desire af copulation, for the encrease and propagation of its kind ;. and more especially in m-iri, the lord of the creation, and master-piece of nature ; that so noble a piece of divine work- T6 Aristotle's Master-piece. mtvnship might not perish, something ought to be said concerning that, it being the foundation of all that we have been hitherto treating of; since without copulation there can be no generation. Seeing therefore it depends so much upon it, I thought it necessary, before I conclude the first part, to give such directions to both sexes, for the performing of that act, as may appear efficacious to the end for which nature designed it. But it will be done with that caution, as not to offend the chastest ear, nor put the fair sex to the trouble of a blush in reading it. Therefore, when a married couple, from a desire of having children, are about to make use of those means that nature ordained to that purpose, it would be very proper to cherish the body with generous restoratives, so that it may be brisk and vigorous : and if their imaginations were charmed with sweet and melodious airs, and cares »nd thoughts of business drowned in glass of racy wine, that their spirits may be raised to the highest pitch of ardor and joy, it would not be amiss. For so exhausted, that there is not a snperplus remaining to be expelled as is recorded of the Amazons, who being active and always in motion, had their fluxations very little, or not at all. Or, it may be caused by cold which is most frequent, making the blood vicious and gross, condensing and bind- ing up the pas^agvS that it rai.not flow forth. The internal cause is either instrumental or material —in the womb or in the bjood. In tiie womb it may be divers ways ; by a post- humes, humours, ulcers, by t. hath with these parts,trembling of the heart ; particular signs are these—if the suppression proceed from cold, she is heavy, sluggish, of a pale colour^ and has a slow pulse ; Vtnus's combats are neglected, the urine crudle, wateiish, and much in quantity, the excrements of the guts usually art- retaintd. If of that, the signs are coi tra;y to those now rtcittd. If the retention be natural, and come of conception, this may be known by drinking of hydromel, that is, Wuter and honey, after supper, going to bed ar.d by the effect which it worketh ; for, after taking it, she feels a beating pain upon the navel, and lower prt of the beliy, it is a sign she hath conceived, and that the suppression is natural; if not, then it is vicious:, and ought medicinally to be taken away. Prognostics.]—With the c\il quality of the womb the whole body stands charged, but especial- ly the heart, the liver, and the brain : and betwixi the womb and these three principal parts, there is a singular concert. First,the womb communicates to the heart, by the mediation of those arteries which come from aorta. Hence, the terms being supprest, will ensue faintings,swooniiigs,intermission of pulse cessation of breath. Secondly, it communicates to to the liver, by the veins derived from the hollow vein. Then will follow obstructions, cahexies, jaundies, dropsies, hardness of spleen, Thirdly it 84 Aristotle's Master-piece. it communicats to the brain, by the nervse & mem- brane of the back ; hence will arrise epilepsies, frenzies melancholy, passion, p.. in in the after-part of the head, fearfulness, inability of speaking. Well,therefore, may I conclude with Hipocrates— If the months be supprest, many dangerous dis- eases will follow. Cure.]—In the cure of this, and of all other fol- lowing effects, I will observe this order. The cure must be taken from chirugical, pharmacutical and diurctical means. This suppression is a phletoric effect, and must be taken away by evacuation. And therefore we will first begin with phlebotomy. In the midst of the menstrual period, open the liver vein ; and, for the reversion of the humour, two days before the wonted evacuation, open the saphev na on both feet; if the repletion be not great, ap- ply cupping-glasses to the legs and thighs, although there be no hope to remove the suppression. After the humour hath been purged, proceed to make proper and forcible remedies. Take of tro- chisk of myrh one dram and a half, parsley-seed, castor rhinds, or cassia, of each one scruple, and of the extract of mugwort one scruple and an half, musk ten grains, with the jsuie of smallage, make twelve pills, take six every morning, or after sup- per, going to bed. If the retention comes from repletion or fulness^ let the air be hot and dry, use moderate exercise before meals, and your meat and drink attenuating ; seethe, with y'our meat, garden savory, thyme, ori- gane, and cyche peason ; if of emptiness, or defect of matter, let the air be moist and moderate hot, shun exercise and watchings, let your meat be nou- rishing and of a light digestion, as rare eggs, lamb% chickens, almonds, >:ilik, and the like. Aristotle's Master-Piece. '"*• 85 CHAP. III. Of the Overflowing of the Courses. THE learned say, by comparing of contraries truth is made manifest. Having, therefore, spoken of the suppression of terms, order requires, now that I should insist on the overflowing of them, an effect no less dangerous than the former and this immoderate flux if the month is defined to be a san- guineus excrement proceeding from the womb, exceeding in both qnantity and time : First it is said to be sanguinous, the matter of the flux being only blood wherein it differs from that which, is com- monly called the false courses or whites, of which I shall speek hereafter. Secondly, it is said to proceed from the womb, for there are two ways by which the blood flows forth, the one way is by the internal veins in the body of the womb, and this is properly called the monthly fiux. The other is by those veins which are terminated in the neck of the womb. Lastly, it is said to exceed both in quantity and time. In quantity, saith Hi- pocrates, when they flow about eighteen ounces ; in lime, when they flow above three days; but we take this for a certain character of their inordi- nate flowing, when the faculties of the body there- by are weakened ; in bodies abounding with gross humours, this immoderate flux sometimes unbur- thens nature of her load, snd ought not be stayed without the consent of a physician. Cause.]—The cause of this affair is internal or external ; tiie internal cause is threefold,in the mat- ter, instrument, or faculty : The matter, which is in the blood, may be vicious two ways—First, by the heat of constitution, climate or season heating the blood, whereby the passages a«e dilated, and H 86 Aristotle's Master-Piece. the faculty weakened, that it cannot contain the blood. Secondly, by falls, blows, violent motion, breaking of the veins, etc. The external cause may be calidity of the air, lifting, carrying of heavy burdens, unnatural child-birth, he. Signs.] - In this inordinate flux, the appetite is decayed, the conception deprived, and all the ac- tions weakened, the feet are swelled, the colour of the face is chang"d, and a general feebleness pos- ssesseth the whole body. If the flux comes by the breaking of a vein, the body is sometimes cold, ths blood flows forth on heaps, and that suddenly, with great pains. If it comes through heat, the orifice - of the vein being dilated, then there is little or no pain ; yet the blood flows faster than it doth in an erosion, and not s,o fast as it doth in a mpture. 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 copious- ly as they do: If by weakntss of the womb, she abherreth the use of Venus. Lastly, if it proceed' from an evil quality of the blood, drop some of it on a cloth, and when it is dry, you may judge of the quality of the colour. If it be choleric, it will be yellow ; if melancholy, black ; if plegnatic, , waterish and whitish. ! Prognostics.]—If with the flux be joined a convulsion, it is dangerous, because it intimates the more noble parts are vitiated, and a convul- sion caused by emptiness is deadly ; If it continues long, it will be cured with great difficulty, tor it was one of the miracles that our Saviour Chrsit wrought; to cure this disease, when it had contin- ed twelve years. To conclude, If the flux be in- ordinate, many diseases Mill ensue, and, without < Aristotle's Master-Piece. 87 remedy, the blood, together with the native heat, being consumed, either cachectica!, hydropical, or pareletical diseases will follow. Cure.]—The cure consisteth in three particu- lars : First, in repelling and carrying'away the- blo-d.—Secondly, in correcting and taking away the fluxability of the matter. Thirdly, in corrobo- rating the veins and faculties : For the first, to cause a regression of the blood, open a vein in the arm, and draw out so much blood as the strength of the patient will permit; and that not together, but at several times for thereby the spirits are less "Weakeied, and the refraction so much the greater. Apply cupping-glasses to the breasts, and also the Iiver,that tht reversion may be in the fountain. To correct the fluxability of the matter, cathar- tical means, moderated with the asti ictories, may be used. If it be caused by erosion, or sharpness of blood, consider whether the orosion be by salt phlegm, or adust choler; it with salt phlegm, prepare with syrup of violets, wormwood, roses, citron-peel, succory, &c. Then take this purga- tion following : Mirobulana, chebnl half an ounce, trochilks of agaric one dam with plaintain wa- ter, make a decoction, add thereunto fir, roseat, lax three ounces, and make a potion. If by adust choler, prepare the body with syrup of roses, myrtles, sorrel, purslain- mix with water of plaintain, knot-grass and endive—then purge with this potion : Take rhind of mirobulana, rhu- barb, of each one dram, cinnamon fiteen grains, infuse them one night in endive water; and to the straining pulp of a tamarind, cassia, of each half an ounce.,syrupef rost^s an ounce,make a potion :— If the blood be watcrisli or unconcoct, as it is in ^ 88 Aristotle's Master-Piece. the hydropical bodies, and flow forth by reason of the tenuity or thinness to draw off the water, it will be profitable to purge with agaric elaterium, coloquintida : Sweating is proper in this case, for thereby the matter offending is taken away, and the motion of the blood carried to the outward parts. To procure sweat, use carduus water, with mythndate, or the decoction of sarsaparilla. Tho gum of guaiacum also greatly provokes sweat; pills of sarsaparilla, taken every night going to bed, are worthily commended. If the blood flows forth through the opening or breaking of a vein, without any evil quality of itself, then ought only corroboraiives to be applied, which is the last thing to be done in this inordinate flux. The air must be cold and dry ; all motion of the body is forbidden ; let her meat be pheasant, partridge, mountain-birds, coneys, calves' feet, &c.—And let her beer be mixt with the juice of pomegranates and quinces. CHAP. IV. Of the Weeping of the Womb. THE weeping of the womb is a flux of blood, unnatural, coming from thence m drops, af- ter the manner of tears, causing violfnt pains in the same, keeping neither period nor time. By some it is referred unto the immoderate evacua- tion of the course, yet they are distinguished in the quantity and manner of oveiflowing. in that they flow copiously and free in this continually, though by little and little, and that with great pain and difficulty, wherefore, it is likened unto the stranguary. The cause is in the faculty, instrument, or mat- ARISTOTLE S MASTER-PI ECE . 89 ter. In the faculty, by being enfeebled, that it can- not expel the blood, and the blood resting there, makes the part of the womb grow hard,andstretch- eth the vessels from whence preceedeth the pain of the womb : In the instrument, by the narrow- ness of the passages. Lastly, it may be the matter of the blood, which may offend in too great a quantity, or in an evil quality, it being gross and thick, that it cannot flow forth as it ought to do, but by drops. The signs will best appear by the re- 1 lationofthe patient : Hereupon will issue pains in ' the head, stomach, and back, with inflammations in the head, stomach, and back ; with inflamma- tion, suffocations-and excoriations of the matrix : If the strength of the patient will permit first open a vein in the arm.iub the upper parts, and let her arm be corded, that the force of the blood may be i carried backwards ; then apply such things as may j laxate and mollify the strengthening the womb, and assuage the sharpness of the blood, as cata- '„ plasms made of brand j lintseed, fenug; eek, meliot, mallows,mercury and artiplex: If the blood be vi- cious and gross., add thereto mugwort, calamint, dictam and- betony ; and let her take of Venice treacle the quantity of a nutmeg, the syrup of mug- wort every morning, make injections of the decoc- tions of mallows, mercury, lintseed, grounsel, mugwort, fenugreek, with oil of.sweet almonds. Sometimes it is oaused by wind, and then phle- botome is to be omitted, and in the stead thereof take syrup of fefertew an ounce, honey, roses, sy- t rup of roses, syrup of flaschus. of each half an oz. | Water of calamint, mugwort, betony, f ysop, of \ each an oz, make a julep ; if the pain continues, '' take .this purgation—take spechieisc one dram diacatholicon half an oz, syrup of roses, Jaxaivtts ft 90 ARrSTOTLE's MASTER-PIECE. one ounce, with the decoction of mugwort, and the four cerdial flowers, make a potion. If it comes through the weakness of the faculty, let that be corroborated—If through the grossness and sharpness of the blood, let the quality of it be al- tered, as I have shev/n in the foregoing chapter.— Lastly, If the excrements of the guts be retained, provoke them by glyster of the decoction of camo- mile, betony, feverfew, mallows, lintseed, juniper- berries, common seed, anniseed, meiiote, adding thereto diacatholicon half an ounce, salt nitre a dram and a half. The patient must abstain from salt, sharp and windy meat. CHAP. V. The false Courses, or Whites. FROM the womb proceeds notonlymenstruous blood, but, accidentally, many other excre- ments, which, by the ancients, are comprehended under the title of robus, gunakois, which is a dis- tillation of a variety of corrupt humours through the womb, flowing from the whole body, or part of the same, keeping neither course nor colour, but varying in both. Course.]—The cause is either promiscuously in the whole body, by a cacochymia, or weakness of the same, or in some of the parts, as in the liv- er, which bv the inability of the sanguifacative fa- culty, caustth a generation of corrupt blood ; and the matter is reddish, sometimes the gall being sluggish in its office, not drawing away those cho- leric superfluities engendered in the liver; and the matter is yellowish sometimes in the spleen, not descending and cleansing the blood of the dregs of excrementious parts. And then,the matter flow- Aristotle's Master-Piece. 91 ing forth is blackish : It may also come from the cattarahs in the head, or from any other puirified or corrupted member ; but if the matter ofthe fiux be white, the cause is either in the stomach or reins. In the stomach, by aphlegmatical and crude matter there contracted and variattd, thro' gritf, melancholy, and other distempers ; for, otherwise, if the matter were only pernical, crude, phlegm, and no ways corrupt, being taken into the live r, it might be converted into blood ; for, phlegm in the ventricle is called nourishments half digested ; but being corrupt, though sent into the liver, yet it cannot be turned into nutriment; for, the second decoction cannot correct that which the first hath corrupted ; and therefore the liver sends it to the womb, which can neither digest nor repel it, and so it is voided out with the same colour it had in the ventricle.—The cause also may be in the reins being over-heated, whereby the spermatical mat- ter, by reason of its thinness flows forth. The external causes may be moistness of the air, eat- ing of corrupt meats, anger, grief, slothfulness, immoderate sleeping, costiveness tn the body. The signs are,exturbation of the body,shortness and stinking of the breath, loathing of meat, pain in the head, swelling in the eyes and feet, melan- cholly ; humidity flows from the womb of divers colours, as red, black, green, yellow and white. It differs trom the flowing and Overflowing of the courses," in that it keeps no certain period,and is of many colours, all which do generate from blood. PKOGNOsTrcs.]—If the flux be phlegmatical, it will continue longr, and be difficult to cure ; yet, if mitting, for diarhas happeneth,diverts the humour, it cures the disease. If it be choleric, it is not so permanent, yet more perilous, for it will cause a 92 aristotle's master-piece. cliff in the neck of the womb, and sometimes make an excoriation of the matrix; in melancholic it mibt be dangerous contamacious ; yet the flux of the uemerhoids a iminist. rs cure. If the matter flowing forth be reddish, open a vein in the arm ; if not,app!yhtagures to the arms and shoulders : Galen glories of himself, how he cured the wife of Brutus laboring of this disease, by rubbing the upper part with crud honey. If n is caused by distillation from the brain take symp of betony,stochas and marjoram,purge with pilloch, fint quibus de agarico; make nasalia of of the juice of sage, hyssop betony, nigella, with one d' op of the oil of elect, dianth, aromat, rofat, diambrx, diomeseth, dulcis, of each on dram ; nut- meg, half a dram ; with sugar and betony water, make lozenges, to be taken every morning and evening. Hun* Alexandria half a dram, at night going to bed. If these things help not, use the suffumigation and plaister, as they are prescribed. If it proceeds from crudities in the stomach, or from a cold distempered livtr, take every morning of the decoction of lignum sanctum ; purge with pill de agarico, de hermodact, de hi era, diacolin- thid, foetid, agngatio ; take elect, aromat, roses, 'two drams % citron pill dried, nutmeg, long pep- per, "of each one scruple, with mint wati-r, and make lozenges of it. Take of them before meals ; if the frigidity of the liver there be joined a reple- tion of the stomach, purging by vomit is'commen- dable ; for which take three drams of the electua- ry diar.ara Galen allows of diuretical means as ab- sum, ptroso linan. If the matter of the flux be choleric, prepare the humour with syrup of roses, violets, endive, succo- ry ; purge \r.zh mirobolans, manna, rhubarb, cassia. Aristotle's Master-piece; 9*3 Take of rhubarb two di'ams, anniseed one dram, cinnamon a scrupie and an half; infuse them in six ounces prune troth ; add too the straining of manna an ounce, and take in the morning accord- ing to art. Take spicerum, diatonianton, ciaco- rant, prig cli-.rthod; abbaris, dLcydomes, of each one dram, sugar four ounces, wit!i plaintain Wc.ter, make lozenges, If the clyster ci the gall be slug- gish, and do not stir up the faculty of the gut, give giysters, with the decoction of four nidifying herbs, with honey of roses and aloes. If the flux be melancholous, prepare with syrup of maiden hair, epithymium, pclipccy, borrage buglos, fumitary, harts tongue, and syrupus bisa- tius, which must be made without vinegar, otherr wise it will rather animace the disease than nature ; for melancholy, by the use of vinegar, is encreased, and both by Hippocrates, Sylvius, and Avenzoar, it is disallowed of as an enemy to the womb, and therefore not to be used inwardly in all uterine diseases. L#stly—Let the womb be cleansed from the corrupt matter, and then corroborated ; for the purifying thereof make injections of the decoction of betony, feverfew, spikenard bistrop, mercury, sage, adding thereto sugar- oil of sweet almonds, of each two ounces ; pessaries also may be made of silk, cotton, modified in the juice of the afore- mentioned herbs. CHAP. VI. Of the Suffocation of the Mother. THE effect (which if simply considered)is non« but the cau?e of an effect, is called in Eng- lish the suffocation of the mother ; not because 94 Aristotle's Master-Piece. the womb is strangled, but for that it causeth the womb to be choaked. it is a retraction of the womb towards the midriff and stomach, which presseth and crusheth up the same, that the in- strumental cause of respiration, the midriff is suf- focated—- ,nd consenting with the brain, causing the ani.nating faculty, the efficient cause of respi- ration, also to fee intercepted, where the body be-* ing refrigerated and the action depraved, she fulls to the ground as one being dead. In these hysterical passions some continue longer some shorter: Rabbi Moses writes of some who lay in the paroxysy of the fit for two days. Ru- fus makes mention of one who continued in the same passion three days and three nights, and at the three days end she revived. That we may learn by other men's harms to beware, I will tell you an example, Paroeus writeth of a woman in Spain who suddenly fell into an uterine suffocaiion and appeared to men's judgment as dead ; her friends wondering at this her sudden change, for their better satisfaction sent for a surgeon to have her dissected, who beginning to make an incision, the woman began to move, and with great clamour returned to herself again, to the horror and ad- miration of all the spectators. 'i hat you may distinguish the living from the dead, the ancients prescribe three experiments : The first is to lay a light feather to the mouth, and by its motion you may judge whedier the patient be living or dead. The second is—to place a glass of water on the breast, and if you perceive it to move, it betokeneth life. The third is—to hold a pure looking-glass to the mouth and nose, and if the glass appears thick with a little dew upon it, it betokeneth life. And these three experiments Aristotle's master-piece. 95 are good, yet with this caution, that you ought not to depend on them too much, for though the feather and the water do not move, and the glass continue pure and clear, yet it is not a necessary consequence that she is destitute of life ; for the motion of the lungs, by which the respiration is made, may be taken away that she cannot breathe, yet the internal transpiration of the heat may re- main, which is not manifest by the motion of the breast or lungs, but lies occult in the heart and inr ward arteries ; examples thereof Ave have in the fly and swallow, which in the cold of winter seem dead, and breath not at all; yet they live by the transpiration of that heat which is reserved in the heart and inward arteries; therefore when the summer approacheth, the internal heat being re- located to the inward parts, they are then again revived out of their sleepy ecstacy. Those women therefore that seem to die sud- den, and upon no evident cause, let them not be committed to the earth unto the end of three days, lest the living be buried for the dead. Cause.]—The part affected in the womb, of which there are a twofold motion, natural and symptomatica!. The natural motion is, when the womb attracteth the human seed, or excludeth the infant or secundine. The symptomatical motion of which we are to speak, is a convulsive drawing of the womb. Signs.]—At the appi'oaching of the suffocation, there is a paleness of the face, weakness of the legs, shortness of breath, frigidity of the whole body, with a working up into the throat, and then she falls down at once void both of sense and motion ; the mouth of the womb is closed up, and bemg touchea with the finger it feels hard, the paroxism 96 Aristotle's Master-Piece. ©f the fit one past, she openeth her eyes, and feel- ing her stomach opprest, she offers to vomit. Prognostics'.]—If the disease hath its being from the corruption of the seed, it foretels more danger than if it proceeded from the suppression of the courses, because the seed is concocted and of a purer quality than the menstruous blood; and the more pure being corrupted, becomes the more foul and filthy, as appears in eggs the purest nourish- ment which vitiated, will yield the noisomest fa- vour. If it be accompanied with a syncope, it shews nature is but weak, and that the spirits are almost exhausted; but if sncei.i;ig follows, it shews the heat that was almost ex Jnct, doth now begin to yeturn, and nature wiii subdue the disease. Cure.]—In the cure of this effect, two things must be observed : First, That during the time of the paroxism, nature be provoked to expel those malignant vapours which bind up the senses, that she may be recalled out of the sleepy exstacy. Se- eondly, That in the intermission of the fit, proper medicines be applied to take away the cause. To stir up nature, fasten cupping-glasses to the hips andfiavel, applying ligatures unto the thighs ; rub the extreme parts with salt, vinegar, and mus- tard ; cause loud clamours and thvmderings in the ears. Apply to the nose assafcetida castor, and sagapancum steeped in vinegar, provoke her to sneeze by blowing up into her nostrils the powder of castor, white pepper, pellitory of Spain, and hellebore. Hold under her nose patridge feathers, hair and old shoes burnt, and all other stinking things, for evil odours are an enemy to nature ; hence the animal spirits do so contest and strive against them that the natural heat is thereby restor- ed. The brain is so opprest. sometimes, that we Aristotle's Master-Piece. 97 are compelled to burn the outward skin of the head with hot oil, or with a hot iron. Sharp clysters and suppositories are available. Take of sage, calamint, harehound, feverfew, marjoram, betyon, hyssop, of each one handful; anniseed half an ounce ; coloquotinda, white hellebore, sal gem. of each two drams ; boil these in two pounds of water to the half; add to the straining oil of castor two ounces; hiera picra two drams, and make a glyster of it. If it be caused by the retention and corruption of the seed, at the instant of the paroxism, let the midwife take oil of lilies, margoram and bays, die- solving in the same two graius of civet; add as much musk ; let her dip her finger therein, and put into the neck of the womb, tickling and rub- bing the same. The fit being over, proceed to the curing of the cause. If from the retention of the seed, a good husband will administer a cure, but those who can- not honestly purchase that cure, must use such things as will dry up and diminish the seed ; as di- cuminua, diacalaminthes, he. Amongst banonics, the seed of augus castus is well esteemed of, whe- ther taken inwardly applied outwardly, or receive a suffumigation. It was held in great honor amongst the Athenians, for by it they did remain as pure vessels, and preserved their chastity by- only strowing it on the bed whereon they lay, and hence the name of augus castus given it, as denot- ing its effects. Make an issue in the inside of each leg, an hand breadth below the knee. Make trochisks of agric two scruples, wild carrot-seedj lign aloes, of each half a scruple ; washed turpen- tine, three drams, with conserve of anthos make a bolus ; castor is of excellent use in this case, eight I 98 Aristotle's Master-piece. drams of it taken in white wine, or you may make pills of it with mithridite, and take them going to bed. Take of the white briony root dried, and after the manner of carrots, one ounce ; put into a draught of wine, placing it by the fire, and when it is warm drink it; take myrrh, castor, asofcetida, of each one scruple ; saffron and rue seed, of each four grains ; make eight pills, and take two every night going to bed. Galen, by his own example, commends unto us agaric pulverized, of which he frequently gave one scruple in white wine : lay to the navel at bed time a head of garlic bruised, fastening it with a swith- ing-band ; make a girdle of galbacum for the waist, and also a plaister for the belly, placing in one part of it civet and musk, which must be laid upon the navel. Take pulveris benedict, trochisk of agaric, of each two drams mithridite a sufficient quantity, and so make two passeries, and it will purge the matrix of wind and phlegm, foment the natural part with salad oil, in whiqh has been boiled rue, feverfew and camomile. CHAP. VII. Of descending or falling of the Mother. THE falling down of the womb is relaxation of the ligatures, whereby the matrix is carried backward, and in some hangs out in the bigness of an egg. Of these there are two kinds, distin- guished by a descending and precipitation. The descending of the womb is, when it sinks down to the entrance of the privities, and appears to the eye either not at all or very little. The precipitation is, when the womb, lii-.e a purse is turned inside outward, and hangs betwixt the Aristotle's Master-piece. 99 mighs in the bigness of a cupping-glass. Cause.]—the cause is external or internal: The external cause is difficult child-birth, violent pull- ing away the secundine, rashness and inexperience in drawing away the child, violent coughing, sneez- ing, fails, blows, and carrying heavy burthens.— The internal cause, in general, is overmuch humi- dity flowing into these parts, hindering the opera- tion of the womb, whereby the ligaments by which the womb is supported is relaxed. The cause, in particular, is referred to be in the retention of the seed, or in the suppression of the monthly courses. Signs.]—The a—e, gut and bladder oftentimes are so crushed that the passage of both excrements are hindered ; if the urine flows forth white and thick, and the midriff is molested, the lions are grieved, the privities pained, and the womb sinks down to the private parts, or else comes clean out. Prognostics,]—This grief possessing an old wo- man is cured with great difficulty, because it weak- ens the faculty of the womb, and therefore though it be reduced into its proper place, yet upon very little illness or indisposition it is subject to return 4 and so it also is with the younger sort', if the dis- ease be inveterate. If it be caused by a putrefac- tion in the nerves it is incurable. Cura.]—The womb being naturally placed be- tween the strait gut and the bladder, and now fallen down, ought to be put up again, until the faculty both of the gut and bladder be stirred up ; nature being unloaded of her burden, let the wo- man be laid on her back in such sort, that her legs may be higher than her head ; let her feet be drawn up to her hinder parts, with her knees spread abroad; then molify the swelling with oil lOto Aristotle's Masteh-Pieoe. of fillies and sweet almonds, or with the'decoction of mallows, beets, fenugrek, and lintseed : When the inaflmation is dissipated, let the midwife anoint her hand with oil of mastick, and reduce the womb into its place. CHAP. VIII. Of tht Inflamation of the Womb. THE phlegmon, or inflammation of the matrix, is an humour possessing the whole womb, acompanied with unnatural heat, by obstruction and gathering together of corrupt blood Cause.] The cause of this effect is suppression of the menses,repletion of the whole body,immoderate use of Venus, often handling the genitals, difficult child-birth, vehement agitation of the body, falls, blows; to which also may be added, the use of sharp pessaries,whereby not seldom the womb is in- flamed ; cupping-glasses also fastened to the pubis and hypogastrium, draw the humours to the womb. Signs.] The signs are anguish, humours, pain in the head and stomach, vomiting, coldness of the knees, convulsions of the neck, doating, trembling of the heart; often there is a straitness of breath, by reason of the heat which is communicated to the midriff, the breasts sympathizing with the womb, pained and swelled. Further, if the fore-part of the matrix be inflamed, the privities are grieved, the urine is supprest, or flows forth with difficulty. If the after-part, the loins and back suffer, the excre- ments are retained; if the right side, the right hip suffers, the right leg is heavy, slow to motion, inso- much that sometimes she seems to halt. And so, if the left side ol the womb be inflamed, the left hip is pained, and the left leg is weaker than the right. Aristotle sMaster-pi e c e . JOi If the neck of the womb be refreshed, the mid- wife putting up her fiager, shall feel the mouth of it retracted, and closed up with hardness about it. Prognostics.]—All inflammations of the womb are dangerous, if not deadly ; and especially if the total-substance of the matrix be inflamed ; yet, they are perilous if in the neck of the womb. A flux of the belly foretells health, if it be natural ; for, na- ture works best by the use of her own instruments. Cure.]—In the cure, first let humours flowing to the womb be repelled ; for effecting of which, after the belly has been loosened by cooling clys- ters, phlebotomy will be needful; open, therefore, a vein in the arm, and (if she be not with child) the day after, strike saphena on both feet, fasten ligatures and cupping-glasses to the arm, and rub the upper part. Purge lightly with cassia, rhu- barb, senna, morobolans. Take of senna two drams, anniseed one scruple mirobolans, half an ounce, barley-water a sufficient quantity, make a decoction: dissolve in it syrup of succory, with rhubarb, two onnces, pulp of cassia half an ounce, oil of anniseed t».ro drops, and make a potion The air must be cold, all motion of the body, especially of the lower parts, is forbidden ; vigi- lance is commended ; for, by sleep the humours are carried inward, by which the inflammation is increased, eat sparingly, let your drink be barley- water, clarified whey ; and your meat chickens and chicken-broth, boiled with endive, succory, sorrel, bugloss and mallows. I 2 \Q% aristotle's masterpiece. CHAP. IX. Of the Scirrosity or Hardness of the Womb* OF phlegmon /neglected, or not perfectly, is generated a schirrus of the matrix ; which is a hard unnatural swelling, insensibly hindering the operations of the womb, and disposing the whole body to slothfulness. Cause.]—One cause of this disease may be as- cribed to want of judgment in the physician, as ma- ny empirics, administering to an inflammation of the womb, do overmuch refrigerate and affringe the humour that it can neither pass backward nor forward—hence, the matter being condensed, de- generates into a lapidious hard substance Other causes may be, suppression of the menstruous re- tention of the lochia, commonly called the after- purgings, eating of corrupt meats, as in the disor- dinate longing called pica, to which breeding wo- men are so often subject. It may proceed also from obstructions and ulcers in the matrix, or from evil effects of the liver and spleen. Signs.] If the bottom of the v\>mb be affected, she feels, as it were, a heavy burden, representing a mole, yet differing, in that the breasts are attenuat- ed, and the whole body waxeth less. If the neck of the womb be affected,no outward humours wili ap- pear ; the mouth of it is retracted, and being touched with the finger, feels hard,nor can she have the com- pany of a man without great pains and prickings. Prognostics.] A schirrus confirmed is incura- ble, and will turn into a cancer or incurable drop- sy, and ending in a cancer proves deadly, because the native heat in those parts being almost smother- ed, can hardly again be restored* Aristotles Master-piece. 10S Cure.] Where there is a repletion, phlebotomy is adviseable ; wherefore, opening the medina on both arms, and the saphena on both feet, more es- pecially if the menses be suppressed. The air must be temperate ; gross, vicious and salt meats are forbidden, as pork, bull's beef, fish, old cheese, &c. CHAP. X. Of the Dropsy of the Womb. THE uterine dropsy is an unnatural swelling, elevated by the gathering together of wind or phlegm in the cavity, membranes or substance of the womb, by reason of the debility of the nativo heat and aliment received, and so it turns into an The causes are, over-much cold or moistness of the melt and liver, immoderate drinking eating of crude meats, all which causing a repletion, do suf- focate the natural heat. It may be caused likewise by the overflowing of the courses, or by any other immoderate evacuation. To these may be added, abortives, phlegmons and schirrossities of the womb. , Signs.] The signs of this effect are those, the lowef parts of the'belly, with the genitals, are puff- ed up and pained, the feet swell, the natural colour of the face decays, the appetite is depraved, and the heaviness of the whole body concurs. If she turns herself in the bed, from one side to the other, a noise like the overflowing of water is heard, Water some- times comes from the matrix. If the swelling be caused by wind, the belly being hot, it sounds like a drum; the guts rumble, and the wind breaks aphena in both the feet; fasten cupping glasses to the loins and sides of the belly, which done let the uterine parts be first molified, and then the expulsive quality be provoked to the burthen. To laxate the ligature of the mole, take mal- lows, with the roots three handfuls; camomile, meliloet, pellitory of the wall, violet leaves, mer- cury, roots of fennel, parsleys of each two hand- fuls ; lintseed, fenugreek, eadi one pound ; boil them in water, and let her sit therein up to the navel. At the going out of the bath, annoint the privities and reins with this unguent following: Take oil of camomile, lillies, sweet almonds, each one ounce ; fresh butter, labdanum, amoniac, of each an ounce ; with the oil of lintseed make an unguent. The air must be tolerably .hot and dry, and dry diet, such as do molify and attenuate, she may* drink white wine. CHAP. XII. \0f the signs oi Conception. IGNORANCE makes women become murderers of the fruit of their own bodies, many having con- ceived,and thereupon finding themselves out of or- dered not knowing rightly the cause, do either run to the shop of their own conceit, and take what they think fit,orelse,as the custom is,theysend to the phy- sician for a cure ; and he not perceiving the cause of their grief, feeling no certain judgment can be given by the urine, prescribes what he thinks best, perhaps some strong dienertic or cathartic potion, whereby the conception is destroyed. Where- 108 Aristotle's Master-piece. fore Hippocrates says, there a necessity that wo- man should be instructed in the knowledge of conception, that the parent as well as the child might be saved from danger. I will therefore give some instructions by which every one may know whether she be with child or not. The signs of conception shall be taken from the woman, from the urine, from the infant, and from experience. Signs taken from the woman are these—The ffrst day after conceptiso she feels a light quiver- ing or chillness running through the whole body —a tickling in the womb, a little pain in the lower part t live, b-cause the day of his birth is tither p. . o. f« come. For in the eighth month (saith Avn0 he's weak aud infirm ; and therefore being "ca^t in o the cold air, his spirits cannot be sup- ported. C'4i4>e.] Untimely birth may be caused by >""Sv. artstotl's MASTER-PICK. Ill cold, for as it maketh t! e fruh of the tree to wi- ther and to fall down before it be ripe, so cloth it nip «he fruit of the womb before it conies to full ps- fiction, and makes it to be abortive; some- times by humidity, weakt ning the faculty that tne fruit cannot b^ restrained till the dut lim-. By d.y:»ess or emptiness, defraud ng the'child <<■ its nourishment. By one of these alvinc fi r help tncre, sot.ic cold strikes in the mitrix, whereby ti.e I g- am;::ns are relaxed, and s^ abortion f Hows; wherefore, Plato, in his time, commanded t">a the wo nen should shun all temptation of immoderate joy and grief. Abortion also may be cause ' by tiie corruption of the air, by filthv odou!s>, and especially by the snell of t'.ie snuff ot a caudle ; also by fdls, blows, violent exercise, Uapiug, dan- cing etc. S.gns] Signs of future abortion are extenua- tion of the breasts, with a flux of watry milk, p*ir» in the wo-nb, heaviness tn the h ad U' usual weariness >n the hips and thys, flowing of the courses Signs foretelling the fruit to be dead in Hi-- w^nb, are hollowness of the eyes, pain in the head, anguish, horrors, paleness of the fact ftri'd lips, gnawing of the stomach, no motion o' the infant, coldness and looseness ot the mouth o. the \vo:nb and ihickness ofthe belly, which wavabove is fallen down,, witry and bloody excrements come from the matrix. 112 Aristotle's Master-piece. CHAP. XIV. Directions for Breeding Woman. r~f^l-TJ] prevention of untimely birth consists in Jl iakk.g aw; y tl e aforementioned causes which niu-'. b<- effected hi foi . and afu'• the conception. Before tiie conception, if the body be over hot, cold, dry, or mr>is', correct it with the contra- rh-'-; :f cacochimica', purge it ; if plethriocal, op.-n the liver vein ; if too gross ext-nuals it; if too lean, corroborate raid nou'hh it. All dis- eases of the womb must be removed as I have bi.ewen. After conception the air must be temperate, sleep not ov>r much, avoid watching, exercise of body, passions of the mind, loud clamours, and fifhy smelts ; sweet odours are also to be rejected of those that are hysterical. Abstain from all tair-gs that provoke either the urine or courses, also from salt, sharp and windy mea's; a mode- rate iiet should be observed. Tin cough is anoth.tr accident which accompa- nied bindii);: women, and puts them in great darger o msc a: i ying, bv a continual distillation faiJu-g frr-m the- brain To prevent which, shave a1..ay the naa- from the cornal and salical cois- surt-s, sin: apply thereon this plaisttr. T. ke te- so dc half an ounce . laudanim one dram; stirachis I: weak and tender, subject with the apple, to fall away ; but afterwards the membranes being strengthened. Uie fruit remains firmly la.tentd to tire womb, not apt to mischan- ces, and -.o contiriTOi all the seventh Month, till growing nearer the time of its. nia'unty the laga- ments are again relaxed (like an apple that is al-. most ripe) and grows looser every day until the fixed time of delivery. If, therefore, the body is in real need of putging, she may do it without danger, in the fourth filth or sixth month, bu' K 2 114 Aristotle's Mastlr-Piece, not before nor a'Ur. unless in some sharp diseas- es, in which the mother and child both areliketo perish. Apply it to the reins in the winter time and remove it every twenty-four hours, lest the reins be ever hot therewith- In. the interim anoint the piivitiei and reins with unguent, consitis'^; but if it be summe't time, and the reins be hot, this planter following i, more proper: Take of red roses one lb. mastick, red sanders, of each two drams pomegi ant peel, prepared coriander, of each two drams and an half; barberies two srru- p'cs ; oil of mastick and quinces, of each ore oz. ; juice of piamtain two drams; with pilch make a pl.nster ; anoint the reins also with unguentum sandai. C II A P. XV. Directions to be observed by U'jwan at the Time of ■ their falling in Lobour, in order to their safe De- livery, with Directions for midwives. AN 0 thus having given necessary directions tor child-bearing woman, how to govern thu.ii.-,ei-.re-3 during the th^e cl tl.air pregnacy, I slv.ii i.cidwhatisneaessary for them to observe, in o;\:or to tl ':i: de''ircry, The time ct'l'i"?h chawingTicar let the woman send for a skhii'ui r.ddvvhe, and that rather too soon thun to > late ; and against which tim,; let her pre- p. \\- a p het, bed, or couch near the fire, that the mhiwae . nd her assistants may pass round and help on every «iae, as occasion requires, having a change ofline.1 ready, and a small stool to rest her feet Aristotle's Master-Pikce. 115 against, she having more force when they are-bow- ed, then when they are otherwise. Having thus provided, when tho woman feels her pain come, and weather not cold, let her walk about the room, resting herself by turns upon the bed, and so expect the coming down of her wa- ter, which is a humour contracted in one of the out- ward membranes and flows thence when it is bro- ken by the strugling of the child, their being no direct time fixed for the erdux, though generally it Hows not above two hours before the birth ; mo- tion will likewise cause the womb to open and di- late itself, when lying long in bed will be uneasy ; yet, if she be very weak, she may take some gen- tle cordial to refresh herself, if her pain will permit. If her travail be tedious, she may revive her spirits with taking chicken or nutton-broth, or she may take>a poached fig, bflt must take heed of eat- ing to excess. As for the postures woman are delivered in, they are many, some lying in their bed, sitting in . their bed, or chair ; some, again, on their knees, being supported upon their arms; but the most safe and commodious way is in the bed, and then the midwife ought to mind the following rules.—Let her lay the woman upon her back, her head a little . , raised by the !• lp of a piilow, having the like help to support her reins and buttocks, and that her rump may he high, for if she lies low, she cannot be well delivered. Let her keep her knees and thighs as far distance as she can, her legs bowed together and her buttocks, the soals of her feet and heels being placed on a little log of timber, placed for that pur- pose, that she may strain the stronger ; And then, U6 Aristotle's Master-Piece. to facilitate it, let a woman stroke or press the up* per part of the belly gently, and by degrees : Nor must the woman herself be faint-hearted, but of good courage, forcing herself by straining and holding her breath. In case of delivery, the midwife must wait with patience till the child, or other members, burst the membrane ; for, if, thro' ignorance, or haste to go to other women, as some have done, the minwife tears the membrane with her nai.s, she endangers both the woman and the child; for, its laying dry, and wanting that slipperincss that should nu,ke it easy, it comes forth with great pain. Where the head appears, the midwife must gen- tly hold it between her hands, and ciraw the child at such times as the woman's pains are upon her, h at no other; slipping by degrees her fore-fingers under his arm-pits, not using a rough hand in drawing it forth, lets by that means, the tender infant receive any deformity of body. As soon as the child i* tak- en foith, which is, for the most part, with its face downward, let it be laid on its back, that h may more freeiy receive external respiration ; then cut the navelstring, about three inches from the body, ty- ing that end which adheres to the beliy with a silx- en string, as near as you can ; then cover the head and stomach of the child welt, suilering nothing to come upon the face. The child being thus brought forth, and, if, healthy, lay it by, and let the midwife regard the patient in drawing forth the secundincs ; and this she may do by wagging and stiring them up and down, and afterwards, with a gentie hand, dtawing them forth : And, if the work be dhlicult, iet the woman hold salt in her hands, and thereby she will Aristotle's master-pif.ce. 117 know whether the membranes be broke or not. It may be alco known by causing her to strain or vomit, by putting a finger down her throat, or by straining or moving her lower parts, but let all be done out 01 hand. If this fail, let her take a draught of raw elder-water,'or yolk of a new-laid egg, and smell to a piece of assafetida, especially if she be troubled with a windy choiic. If she happen to take cold, it is a great obstruction to the coming down of the se- cunclines ; and in such cases, the women ought to chaff the woman's belly gently, not only to break the wind, but oblige the fecunaines to com - down. But these proving ineffectual, the midwife must chatter with her hand the extern or orifice of the womb, and gently draw it forth. CHAP* XVI. In Cases of Ext>n:::t;;, what ought to be observed, especially to Women, who, in their Travail, are attended with a fiux of Blood, Convulsions} \a,nd Juts of the Wind. IP the woman's labour be hard and difficult, greater regard must then be had, than at other times ; and first of all, the situation of the womb, and posture of lying, must be across the bed, be- ing held by strong persons, to prevent htr slipping down or moving herself in the operation of the surgeon ; Her thighs must be put asunder, as lar distant as may be, and so held; whilst her head must lean upon a bolster, and the itins of her back supported after the same manner ; her lump and buttocks being lifted up, observing to cover her stomach, belly and thighs with warm linen-) to keep them from the cold. 118 Aristotle's Master-Pikce. The woman being in this posture, let the ope- rator put up his hand, if he find the neck of the womb dilated, and remove the contracted blood that obstructs the passage of the birth ; and hav- ing, by degrees, gent v made way, let him ten- derly move the infant, his hand b«jng first anoint- ed with sweet butter, or a harmless pomatum. And if the waters be not come down, then, with- out difficu ty. may they be let forth : when, it the infant should attempt to break out with its head foremost, or cross, he may gently turn it to fi!;d the feet; which having done, It h.m draw forth the one and fasten it to a ribbon, then put it up again and by degrees find the other, bringing them as close and even as may be, and between whiles, let the woman breathe, urging her to strain to help nature to perfect the birth, that he may draw it forth ; and the readier to do it, that his hold may be the surer, he must wrap a» linen cloth about the child's thigh-,, observing to bring it into the world Villi its f ice downvatds. In case of a flux of blood, if t,.^ neck of the womb be open, it must be considered whether the infant or secundine comes fir a, w;och the hi'ter sometimes happening to do, stops the mouth of the womb and hinders the birth, endangering both the woman and the child ; but, in this case, the -.ecundines must b.- amoved by a swift turn ; and indeed they have by their so coming oown deceived many who feeling tlieir softness, ap- posed the womb was not dilated and by this means tne woman and the child, or at least tie latter, has been lost The secundiots moved, the child must be sought for, a>d drawn foTt... as has been directed; and if in such a case the wo- Aristotle's Master-piece. 119 man or child die, the midwife or surgeon is blameless, because they did their true endeavour. if it appears, upon enquiry, that the secundiues come first, let the woman be delivered with all convenient expedition, because a great flax of blood will follow, for the veins are opened, and upon this account two things are to be considered s First, The manner of the secundiues advancing, whether it be much or little ; if the former, and the head of the child appear first-it may be guid- ed and directed towards the neck of the womb, as in tiie case of natural birth; but, if there appear any difficulty in the delivery, the best way ic to search for the feet, and thereby draw it forth-; but if the latter, the secundine may be put back with a gentle hand, and the child first taken forth. But, if the secundine be far advanced, so that it cannot be put back, and the child follow it close, then are the secundines to be taken forth with much care, as swift as may be, and laid without cutting the entrail that is fastened to them, for thereby you may be guided to lh,e infant, which, whether alive or dead, must be drawn forth by the foet, in all haste, though it is not to be acted un- less in any threat necessity, for in other cases the secundines ought to come last. And in drawing forth a dead child, let these di- rections be carefully observed by the surgeon, viz. if the child be found dead, its head foremost delivery will be the more difficult ; for it is an ap- parent sign the woman's strength begins to fail her, and that the child being dead, and wanting its natural force, can be no ways assisting to its delivery, wherefore the most certain and safe way for the surgeon is, to put up l.is left hand, sliding 120 Aristotle's Master-piece. it as hollow in the palm as he can, into the neck of the womb, and into the lower part thereof to- wards the feet, and then between the head of the infant and the neck of the matrix, when having a hook in the right hand, couch it close and slip it above the left hand, between the head of the child and the flat of the hand, fixing it in the bars of the temple towards the eye ; for want of a conve- nient earning at these in the occiputal-bone, ob- serve still to the left hand in its place and with if: gently moving and stirring the htad ; and so, with the right hand and hook, draw the child for- ward, admonishing the woman to put forth her utmost strength, still drawing when the woman's pangs are upon her ; the htad being drawn out, with all speed, he must slip his hand up under the arm-holes of the child, and take it quite out, giving these things to the woman—A toast of fine whealen bread in a quaiter of an ounce of ipocras wine. I f it so happen that any inflammation, swelling, or congealed blood be contracted in the matrix, under the film of these tumours, either before or after the birth, where the mutter appears thinner, then let the midwife, with a pen-knife or an inci- sion instrument, launch it, and press out the cor- ruption, healing it with a pessary dipped in oil of red roses. II at anytime, through cold, or some violencej the child happen to be swelled in any* part, or hath contracted a watery humour, if it remain ahve, such rrieatis must be used as are least inju- rious to the child and the mother; but if it be dead, that humour must be let out by incision, to facilitate the birth. Aristotle's Master-pi pce. 121 If (as it often happens) that the child comes with its feet foremost, and the hands dilating themselves from the hips ; in such cases, the mid- wife must be prepared with necessary ointment, to stroke and anoint the infant with, to l\t lp its coming forth, lest it turn again into the womb, holding at the same time, both, the arms of the in- fant close to the hips, that so it may issue forth alter its manner; but if it proves too big:, the womb must be well anointed. The woman may aho take sneezing-powder, to make her strain : Those who attend may gently stroke her belly, to im-ke tht birth descend, and keep the birth irom retiring back. And sorr.ttimesit falls out that th. child coming with the feet foremost, has its arms extended above its head; but the midwife must not receive it so, but put it back ag-ain iido the womb, unless the passage be extraordhw) wide, and then she must anoint the child aud the womb; nor is it safe to draw it forth, which may be done in this maimer—the woman must Sie on her back, with her head depressed, and her buttocks raised; and the midwife, with a gentle hand, must compress the heily of the woman towards the midwife, by that means to put back the infant, observing to turn toe face of the ciiiid towards the back of its mother, raising up its thighs and buttocks towards her navel, that so the birth may be more natural. If a chiiu happens to come forth with one foot, the arm being extended .-long the side, and the other foot turned backward, then must the woman he instantly brought to her bed, <.ncl laid in the posture above described, at which time the mid- wife must carefully put back the foot so appearing, L 122 Aristotle's Master-piece. and the woman rocking herself from one side to the other, till she find the child is turned, but must not alter her posture, nor turn upon her face. Af- ter which she may expect her pains, and must have great assistance and cordials to revive and ■support her roirits. At other times k happens that the child lies a- cross in the womb, and falls upon its side ; in this case the woman must not be urged in her labour, neither can any expert the birth in such a manner —therefore the midwife, when she finds it so, must use great diligence to reduce it to its right form, or at least to such a form in the womb, as may make the delivery possible and more easy, by moving the buttocks, and guiding the head to the passage; and if she be successful herein, let her again try by rocking herself to and fro, and wait with patience till it alters its manner of lying. Sometimes the child hastens the birth, by ex- panding its legs and arms ; in which as in the former tho woman must rock herself, but not with violence, till she finds those parts fall to their pro- per stations, or it may be done by a gentle com- pression of the womb, but if neither of them pre- vail, the midwife with her hand must close the legs of the infant, and if she come at them, do the like to the arms, and so draw it forth ; but if it can be reduced of itself, to the posture of a natural birth, it is better. If the infant comes forward with both knees foremost and the hands hanging down upon the thighs, then must the midwife put both knees up- ward, till the feet appear; taking hold of which with her left hand, let her keep her right l-an.i. on the scle of the child, and in th.it poiture endeavour to hving it forth. Aristotle's Master-piece. 123, But if she cannot do this, then also must tbe woman rock herself till the child is in a convenient posture for delivery. Sometimes it happens, that the child passes for- ward with one arm stretched on its thighs, and the other raised over its head, and the feet stretched out length in the womb ; in such a case the mid- wife must not attempt to receive the child in that posture, but must lay the woman on the bed, in the manner aforesaid, making a soft and gentle compression on her belly, to oblige the child to re- tire, which if it does not, then must the midwife thrust it back by the shoulder, and bring the arm that wrs stretched above the head, to its right sta- tion ; for there is more danger in these extremi- ties, and therefore the midwife must anoint her hands first, and the womb of the woman with sweet butter, or a proper pomatum, thursting her hand as near as she can, to the arm of the infant,, and firing it to the side. But if this cannot be done, let the woman be laid on her bed to rest awhile, in which time, perhaps the child may be reduced to a better posture, ivhich the midwife finding, she must draw tender- ly the arms close to the hips, and so receive it. If an infant come with its buttocks foremost, and almost double, then the midwife, anointing her hand must thrust it up, and greatly heaving up the buttocks and back, strive to turn the head to the passage, but not too hastily, lest the infant's retir- ing should shape it worse, and therefore it cannot be turned with the hand, the woman must rock herself on the bed, taking some comfortable things as may support her spirits, till she perceives the child to turn. 124 aristoTle's master-piece. If the child's neck be bowed, and it comes for- ward with its shoul.lers, as sometimes it doth, with the hand and feet streached upwards; the midwife must gently move the shoulders, that she may direct the head to the passage ; and the better to effect it, the woman must rock herself as, afforesaid. These, and other the like methods are to be. ob- served, m case a woman halt* twins, or three chil- dren at a birth as sometime* happens. Pur as the single birth hath but oi* natural way, and many unnatural luims even so it may be in double or treple births. Wherefore, in all such cases, the midwife must take care to receive that firist which is i.caresl the passage, but not letting the other go, lest by retir- ing it should change the form. And when one is born, she must be speedy in bringing forth the other—and this birth, if it be in the natu- al way, is more easy, because the children are common-^ ly less than those of a single birth, and so require a lesser passage. But if this birth corns unnat- urally, it is far more dangerous than the other* In the birth of twins, let the midwif.- be very careful that the secundines be naturally brought* forth, hst the womb being delivered of its burthen fall and, and so the secundines continue lunger than is consistant with the woman's safety. But if one of the twins happen to come with the head, and the other with" the feel foremost, then let the midwife deliver the natural birth first, and if she cannot turn the other out, draw i' out in die posture it presseth forward, but if that with its feet downward be foremost, she may deliver that- first turning the other side. aristotle's master-piece. 125* But in this case, the midwife must carefully see that it be not a monstrous birth, instead of twins a body with two heads, or two bodys joined together, which you may soon see; if both the heads come foremost by putting up her hand be- tween them as high as she can, and then if she find they are twins, she may gently put one of them asside to make way for the other, taking the first which is most advanced, having the other, that she do not change its situation. And for the safety of the first child, as soon as it comes forth out of the womb, the midwife must tie the navel-string as has been before directed, and also bind it with a large and long fillet, that part of the navel that is fastened to the secundies the more ready tp find them. The second infant being born, let the midwife carefully examine weather their be not two secun- dines, for sometimes it falls out, that by the short- ness of the ligaments, it retires back to the preju- dice of the woman. Wherefore lest the womb should close, it is most expedient to hasten them forth with all convenient speed. If two infant* are joined together by the body as sometimes it monstrously falls out, then though the heads should come foremost, yet it is conven- ient if possible to turn them, and draw them forth by the feet, observing that when they come to the tups to draw them out as soon as may be. Anu here great care ought to be used m anoint- ing and widening the passage. But these sort of birth rarely happen" 1,2 126 Aristotle's Master-Piece. CHAP. XVII. How Child-bearing Woman are ordered after De- livery. IF a woman has had very hard hbour, it is ne- cessary she should be rapped up m sheep's skin taken off before it is cold, applying the fleshy side to her reins and belly. Or, for want of this the skin of a t»are- or coney, Head off as soon as killed, may be applyed to the same parfs* Let the woman afterwards be swathed with fine linen cloth, about a quarter of a yard in breadth, chafling her belly before it is swathed with oil of St. John's wort; after that raize up the matrix with a linen cloth many tim<;s folded, then with a little piliow, or quilt over tier flanks,-and place the swathe somewhat above the haunches, wind- ing it pretty stiff, apply at thesame time a warm cloth to her nipples, and not presently applying the remedies to keep back the milk, by reason of the body at such a time is out of traim, for,there is neither vein nor artery which does not >trong- ly btmtand remedies to drive back tin: milk being of a dissolving nature, it is improper to apply them to the breasts during such disorder, lest by to doing evii humours be contracted in the breasts Wherefore twelve hours at least ought to be al- lowed for the circulation and settlenieut of lhe- blood, and what was cast upon the lungs, by the vehemant agitation during the labour, to retire to its proper receptichs. She must by no mean*, sleep presently after de- livery, but about four hours after she may take broth caudle, or such liquod victuals as are nour- ishing; and if she is deposed to skep, she may Aristotle's Master-piece. 12if violets, sweet almonds, of each ail ounce, with whey and a little saffron make an M r34 THE FAMILY PHYSICIAN, ointment; warm it, and bathe with it the part af- fected. An Ointment for the Itch. Take sulphur vive in powder half an ounce, oil of tartar per diiinquim a sufficient quantity, oint- ment of roses four ounces, make a liniment; to which add a scruple of the oil of rhodium to aro- matise it, and rub the part affected with it. For a running Scab. Take two pounds of tar, incorporate into a thick mass with good sifted ashes, boil the mass in foun- tain water, adding leaves of ground-ivy, white hore- hound, fumitory, roots of sharp-pointed dock, and of elecampane, of each four handfuls; make a bath to be used, with care of taking cold. For Worms in Children. Take worm»seed half a dram? flour of sulphur a dram, sal prunelle half a dram, mix and make a powder. Give as much as will lie on a silver three- pence, night or morning, in treacle or honey. Or for people grown up, you may add a sufficient quan- tity of aloe rosatum, and so make them up into pills, three or four thereof may be taken every morning. For the Gripes in Children. Give a drop or two of the oil of anniseeds in a spoonful of panada, milk, or what else you think fit* THE FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 135 ' Qf the Judgment of Physiognomy taken from all Parts of the Human Body. HE whose hair is partly curled and partly hanging down, is commonly a wise man or a fool ; or else as very knave as he is a fool. He whose hair groweth thick on his temples and his brows, is by nature simple, vain, luxurious, lust- ful, credulous, clownish in his speech and conver- .: sation. He whose hair is of a reddish complexion.■) is, for the most part, proud, deceitful, detracting, venerous, and full of envy. He whose hair i* ve- ry fair, is, for the most part, a man fit for all praise- \ worthy actions, a lover of honours, and more^ in- clined to good than evil; careful to perform what- -, soever is committed to his care ; secret in carry-. ing on any business, and fortunate. Hair of a yel- •/ lowish colour, shews a man to be good, and will- . ing to do any thing, fearful, bashful, weak of body, j but strong in the abilities of his mind, and more ; apt to remember than to revenge an injury. He whose hair turns grey or hoary in the time of his youth, is generally given to women, vain, false, un- stable and talkative.—JVote, That whatsoever sig- ( nification the hair has in men, it is the same in women also. 1 As whose forehead riseth in a round, signifies a man liberal, of a good understanding, inclined to \ virtue. He whose forehead is very low and little, ' is of a good understanding, magnanimous, but ex- tremely bold and confident, and a pretender to I love and honour. He whose forehead seems J sharp and pointed up in the^ corners of his temples, J is a man naturally vain, fickle and weak in intellec- j tuals —Ne whose brow is full of wrinkles, and j I , 13^ OBSERVATIONS ON THE HUMAN BOOY". hath, as it were, a coming down in the middle of his forehead, is one of a great spirit, a great wit, void pf deceit, and yet of a hard fortune. He whose forehead is long and high, and jutting forth, is honest, but weak and simple, and of an hard for- tune. Those eye-brows that are much arched, whether in man qr woman, and which by a frequent mo- tion, elevate, themselves, shew the person to be proud, high-spirited, vain-glorious, a lover of beauty, and indifferently inclined to their good or evil.-t-He whose eye-brows are thick, and have but little hair upon them, is weak in his intellec- tuals, and too credulous. Great and full eyes, either in man or woman, shew the person to be, for the most part, slothful, bold, envious, a bad concealer of secrets, misera- ble, vain, given to lying, and yet of a bad memory, slow of invention, weak of his intellectuals, and yet very much conceited of that little wisdom he thinks himself master of. He whose eyes are -* hollow in his head, and therefore discerns well at a great distance, is one that is suspicious, proud and treacherous ; but he whose eyes are as it were, starting out of his head, is a simple foolish person. He who stands studiously and acutely, with hiseyes and eye-lids downward, it denots him to be mali- cious impious towards God, and false towards men. Th^se wdiose eyes is always a twinkling, and wliich move backward and forward, shews the person to be luxurious and unfaithful. If a person has any greenness mingled -with the white of their eyes, they are often silly, false and vain.' Those whose. eyes are addicted to bloodshot, are naturally chole- ric, perfidious, without shame, much inclined to OBSEB.VACTIONS ON THI HUMAN BODY. 137 i superstition. They who have eyes like oxen, are persons of a good nutriment but of a week memo- ry, and of a dull understanding; but those whose eyes are neither two little nor two big, and inclin- ing to black, do signify a man mild, peacible. honest, witty, and of a good understanding, and one that when need requires will be servisible to his friend. A long and thin nose, denots a man bold, curious and vain, weak and credulous. A long nose, the tip bending down, shews the person to be wise and discreat. A bottle nose denote a man to be impet- tuous in obtaining his desires. He who has a long and large nose, is an admirer of the fair sex, and well accomplished for the wars of Venus, but ig- norant of any thing else. A nose very round at the end of it, having but little nostrils, shews the person to be very munificent and liberal, true to his trust, but very proud, credulous and vain. He whose nose is more red than any other part of his face, is thereby denoted to be covetous. A thick nose with wide nostrils, denotes a man dull of ap- prehension, simple, and a liar. When the nostrils are close and thin, they de- note a man to have but little testicles, and to be very desirous of the enjoyment of women, but modest in his conversation ; but he whose nostrils are great and wide, is usually well hung and lust- ful, but withal of an envious, bold and treacherous disposition, and though dull of-understanding yet confident enough A great and wide mouth, shews the man to be bold, warlike, shameless, v and stout, a great liar, and a great talker and carrier of news, and also a great eater, but as for his intellectuals they are Very dull, M 2 V 136 OBSERVATIONS ON THE HUMAN BODY'. The lips, when they are very big and blabber- ing, shew a person to be credulous, foolish, dull and stupid, aud apt to be inticed to anv thing. When the teeth are small, but weak in perform- ing their office, and especially if they are short and lew, though they shew the party to be of a weak constitution, yet they denote him to be of no ex- traordinary understanding, and not only so, but also of a meek disposition, honest, faithful and se-. cret in whatever they are trusted with. A tongue too swift in speech, shews a man to be very foolish and vain. A stammering tongue signifies a weak understanding, and a wavering mind. A very thick and rough tongue, denotes a man to be apprehensive, full of compliments, yet treacherous and prone to impiety. A faint voice, attended with little breath, shews a person to be of good understanding but timerous. A thick full chin, abounding with peace, honest and true to his trust. A picked chin shews one to be of a lofty spirit. Vong men's beards usually begin to grow on their chins at fifteen years of age, and sooner; these hairs proceed from the superfluity of heat, the fumes -v 'hereof ascend to the chin and cheeks, like smoke to the funnel of a chimney ; there are few women that have hair on their chins, and the reason is, those humours which cause hair to grow on men's cheeks, are evacuated by women, in their monthly courses. * Great thick ears are certain signs of a foolish person, of a bad memory, and worse understand- ing ; but small and thin ears shews a person to be of good wit and understanding, grave, secret, thrif- ^ ty, modest, of a good memory, Sc vvilliug to oblige., OBSERVATIONS ON THfi HUMAN BODY, 137 A face apt to sweat on every occasion, shews the person to be of a hot constitution, vain and luxuri- ous, of a good stomach, but of a bad understand- ing, and worse conversation. A lean face shews a man to be both bold in speech and action, but withal foolish and deceitful. A face every way of due proportion, denotes an ingenuous person, one fit for any thing, and much inclined to what is good. General observations, worthy of JVote. W'HEN you find a red man to be faithful, a a tall man to be wise,.a fat man to be swift on foot, a lean man to be a fool, a handsome man to ' be proud, a poor man not to be envious, a knave to be no liar, an upright man not too bold and harty to his own loss ; one that drawls when he speaks, not to be crafty and circumventing ; one that winks on another with his eyes, not to be false a^d deceitful —a sailor and a hangman, to be pitiful, a poor man to build churches, a quack doctor to have a good conscience, a bailiff not to be a merciless villain,' an hostess not to over-reckon you, and an usurer t© be charitable : Then say you have found a progi- dy, and men acting contrary to the common course * of naturcv r FLYIS. V ' * $ 1 f 1 T» NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE Bethesda, Maryland W Z~ fir/*** * 1\- ... |5J:"*«! ■>€**•