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national library of medicine
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           THE
MIDWIFE'S  GUIDE.
         Kllustvatetr. 
 
ARISTOTLE'S
MASTER  PIECE:
ILLUSTRATED  EDITION,
    NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED FOR THE TRADE.
       1846. 
 
INTRODUCTION.
  If one 01 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 genus with
sensitive things, all being animals, but different in the species; for  man
alone is endowed with reason ;  and therefore  the Deity, at man's crea-
tion, (as the inspired penman tells us,) said, " Let us make man in out-
own image, after our own likeness."  As if the Lord had said,  Let us
make man in our own image, that he, as a creature, may be like Us : and
the same  in his likeness, that he may be after our image.  Some of the
fathers do distinguish, as if by the image the Lord doth plant the reason-
able powers of the soul, 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. 7, and v. 1,
Colos. x. Eph. v.  14.  And the apostle, where  he saith, "He was created
after the image of God, in knowledge, and  the same in righteousness."
  The Greeks represent  him as one  turning his eyes upwards,  towards
him whose image and superscription he hears.

                See how the heavens' high Architect
                  Hath framed man in this wise,
                To stand, to go, to look erect,
                  With body, face, and eyes !

  And Cicero says, like Moses, all creatures were made to rot on the earth
except man, to whom was given an upright frame to contemplate his Ma
ker, and behold the mansion prepared for him above.
  Now, to the end that so noble and glorious a creature  might  not quite
perish, it pleased the Creator to give unto woman the field of gener^Lon,
for the reception  of human seed ; whereby that natural and vegetable soul,
which lies potentially in the seed, may, by the plastic power, be reduced
into act; that man, who is a mortal creature, by leaving  his offspring, be-,
hind him,  may become immortal, and survive  in his posterity.  And be-
cause this field of generation, the womb, is the plaee where this excellent
creature is formed, and in so wonderful a manner, that the royal Psalmist,
having meditated thereon, cries out, as one in extacy, " I am fearfully and
wonderfully made !" it will be necessary so treat largely thereon in this
Work; which to that end is divided into  Two  Books.
  The first whereof treats of the manner and parts of generation  in  both
sexes.  For from the mutual desire they have to each other, which Nature
has implanted in them to that end, and from the delight which they take in 
VI                       INTRODUCTION.
 the act of copulation, does the whole race of mankind proceed : and a par-
 ticular account of what things are previous to that act;  and also,  what
 are consequential to it; and how e<ich member concerned in it is adapted
 and fitted to that work to which Nature has  designed it.  And though, in
 uttering these things,  something may be said which those who are unclean
 may make bad use of,  and use  it as a motive  to stir up their bestial appe-
 tites ; yet such may know this was never intended for them ; nor do I know
 any reason that those sober persons for whose use this was meant, should
 want the help hereby  designed them, because vain and loose persons will
 be ready to abuse it.
  The second part of this treatise  is wholly  designed for the female sex,
 and does treat largely  not only of the  distempers of the womb, and the va-
 rious 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 never know from whence it  proceeds, nor how to
 apply a remedy : and such is their modesty also, that they are unwilling to
 ask that they may be  informed.  For the help of such is  this designed;
 for having my being from a woman, I thought none had  more right to the
 grapes than  she that  planted the vine.  And, therefore,  observing that
 among all the diseases incident to the body, there  are none more frequent
 and perilous  than those that do  arise from the ill state of the  womb; for
 through the evil quality thereof, the heart, the liver, and  the braiu are
 affected ; from  whence the actions, vital,  natural and animal are hurt;
and the virtues,  concoctive, sanguificative, distributive, attractive, expul-
sive, retentive, with the rest, are all weakened, so  that from the womb
come  convulsions, epilepsies,   apoplexies, palsies,  and fevers, dropsies,
 malignant ulcers, &c.  And there is no disease so bad, but may grow worse
from the evil quality 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) woeful experience
makes manifest.  Here, therefore, as in a mirror, they may be acquainted
 with their own distempers, and have suitable remedies without applying
themselves to physicians, to which  they have so great reluctance. 
PART  I.
           ARISTOTLE'S
MASTER-PIECE,
BOOK I.
                  CHAP. I.

Of Marriage, and at what Age  young Men and Virgins are
  capable of it; and why so much desire it.  Also, how long
  Men and Women are capable of having Children.      _

There are very few, except some professed deba^|
chees,but what will readily agree, that "Marriage
is honourable to all," being ordained by heaven in
paradise;  and  without which, no man or woman
can be in a capacity, honestly, to yield obedience
to the  first law of  the creation, " Increase and
multiply."  And since it is natural in young peo-
ple 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 violently to restrain their inclina-
tions (which, instead of allaying them, makes them
but the more impetuous),  but rather provide such
suitable matches for them, as may make their lives
comfortable ; lest the crossing of their inclinations
should precipitate them  to commit those follies
that may bring an indelible stain upon their fami-
lies.
  The inclination of maids  to marriage is to be
known by many symptoms : for, when they arrive 
8           Aristotle's master-piece.

at puberty,  which is about the fourteenth  or fif-
teenth year  of their age, then their natural purga-
tions 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 them to it; for their spirits being
brisk and inflamed, when they arrive at that age,
if they eat hard salt things  and spices, the body
becomes more and more heated,  whereby the de-
sire to venereal embraces is very great, and some-
times almost insuperable.  And the use of this so
much desired enjoyment being denied to virgins,
many times  is followed by dismal consequences;
such as the  green wesel colonet, short breathing,
trembling of the heart, &cc.   But when  they  are
married, and their venereal desires satisfied by the
enjoyment of  their  husbands,  those  distempers
vanish, and  they become more gay and lively than
Jjefore.  Also, their eager  staring at men, and af-
Wcting their company, shews that nature pushes
them upon coition; and their parents neglecting
to  provide  them  with  husbands,  they  break
through modesty to satisfy themselves in unlawful
embraces.   It  is the same with brisk widows, who
cannot be satisfied without  that benevolence to
which  they  were accustomed  when they had hus-
bands.
  At the age of 14, the menses, in virgins, begin
to flow, when they are capable of conceiving, and
continue, generally, to 44, when  they  cease bear-
ing, unless  their bodies are strong and healthful,
which  sometimes enables them to bear at 55.  But
many times the menses proceed from some vio-
lence done  4o nature, or some morbific matter,
which often proves  fatal.  And, therefore, men
who are desirous of issue ought to marry a woman
within the age aforesaid, or  blame themselves if
they meet with disappointment; though if an old 
Aristotle's  master-piece.           9
man, not worn out by diseases and  incontinency,
marry a brisk lively lass, there is hope of his hav-
ing children to 70 or 89 years.
  Hippocrates says, that a youth of 15, or between
that and  17, having much vital strength, is capable
of getting children :  and also, that the force of
procreating  matter increases till 45, 50, and 55,
and then begins to flag ; the seed, by degrees, be-
coming unfruitful, the natural spirits being extin-
guished,  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  Swedland  a man was married at
100 years of age to  a girl of 30 years, and  had
many children by  her ;  but his countenance was
so fresh,  that those who knew him not, imagined
him not to exceed  50.   And in Campania, where
the air is clear and temperate, men of 80 marry
young virgins, andliave children by them ; which
shows, that age  in them hinders not procreation,
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 na-
tural heat, which  is the cause of  generation, is
more predominant in the latter than in the former ;
for since  a woman  is truly more moist than a man,
as her  monthly  purgations demonstrate, as also
the softness  of her body ; it is also apparent, that
he doth much exceed her in natural heat, which
is the chief thing that concocts the humours into
proper aliment, which the woman wanting grows
fat; when a  man,  through his native heat, melts
his fat by degrees, and his humours are dissolved j
and by the benefit thereof,  are elaborated into
seed.   And  this may  also be added, that wcmen,
generally, are not so strong as  men, nor so wise
or prudent*  nor  have  so much  reason  and inge- 
10
Aristotle's master-piece.
nuity in  ordering affairs;  which shows,  that
thereby their faculties are hindered in operation
                   CHAP. II.

How to get a Male or Female Child ; and of the Embryo, and
    ■perfect Birth; and the fittest Time for Copulation.

  When a young couple is married, they natural-
ly desire children, and  therefore  use  the  means
that nature has  appointed  to that end.  But not-
withstanding their endeavours, they must  know,
the success of all depends on the blessing of God :
not only so, but the sex, whether male or female,
is from his disposal also; though it cannot be de-
nied, but secondary causes have influence therein,
especially two.   First, the  genital humour, which
is brought by the  arteria praiparantes to the tes-
tes, in  form of  blood, and  there  elaborated into
seed, by the seminifical faculty residing  in them.
Secondly, the desire of coition, which fires the ima-
gination with unusual fancies, and by the sight of
brisk  charming beauty may soon inflame the ap-
petite.   Bi't  if nature be  enfeebled, such  meats
must be eaten as will conduce to  afford such ali-
ment 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 subject
to barrenness must eat such meats as are  juicy
and nourish well, making the body lively and full
of sap ; of which faculty are all hot moist meats.
For, according  to  Galen, seed is  made  of pure
concocted and windy superfluity of blood ; whence
we may conclude, there is a power in many things 
             Aristotle's master-piece.           11

 to accumulate seed, and also to augment it; and
 other  things of  force to cause erection, as hen
 eggs, pheasants, woodcocks,  gnat-snappers, black-
 birds, thrushes, young pigeons, sparrows, partrid-
 ges, capons, almonds, pine-nuts, raisins, currants,
 strong  wines taken .sparingly, especially  those
 made of the  grapes  of Italy.  But  erection  is
 chiefly  caused by scuraum,  eringoes,  cresses,
 crysmon, parsnips, artichokes, turnips, asparagus,
 candied ginger, galings, acorns bruised to powder
 and  drank in muscadel, scallion, sea shell-fish, &c.
 But  these must have time to  perform  their opera-
 tion, and must be used for a  considerable time,  or
 you  will reap but little benefit by them.  The act
 of coition being over,  let the woman  repose  her-
 self  on her right side, with  her head lying low,
 and  her body declining, that by sleeping in that
 posture, the cani, on the right side of the matrix,
 may prove the place of the conception : for therein
 is the greatest generative heat, which is  the chief
 procuring cause of male children, and rarely fails
 the expectation of those that  experience  it,  espe-
 cially if they  do but  keep warm,  without much
 motion, leaning to the right,  and drinking a little
 spirit of saffron and juice of hyssop in a glass of
 Malaga or Alicant, when they lie down and arise,
 for a week.
  For  a female child, let the  woman lie on her
 left side, strongly  fancying  a female  in the time
 of procreation,  drinking  the decoction of female
 mercury four days, from the first day of purga-
 tion  ; the male mercury having  the like operation
 in case of a male : for this concoction  purges the
 right and left side of the womb, opens the recep-
 tacles, and makes way for the seminary  of gene-
 ration.  The best time to beget a female  is, when
 the moon is in the wane, in Libra or Aquarius.
Advicene says, when the menses are spent and the 
12
Aristotle's master-piece.
womb  cleansed, which is commonly  in five  or
seven days at most, if a man lie with his wife from
the first day she is purged to the  fifth, she will
conceive a male; but from the fifth to  the eighth,
a female; and from the  eighth  to  the twelfth, a
male again; but after that, perhaps neither dis-
tinctly, but both in an hermaphrodite.  In a word,
they that would be happy in the fruits of their  la-
bour, must observe to use copulation  in due dis-
tance of  time, not too often nor too seldom,  for
both are alike hurtful; and to use it immoderately
weakens and wastes the  spirits, and  spoils the
seed.   And  thus much  for the first particular.
The second is,  to let  the reader know how the
child is formed in the  womb, what  accidents it is
liable to there,  and  how nourished and brought
forth.  There are various  opinions  concerning
this matter, therefore I shall show what the learn-
ed say about it.
  Man consists of an egg, which is impregnated
in the testicles of the woman, by the more  subtle
part of the man's seed; but the forming faculty
and virtue in the seed is a divine  gift, it  being
abundantly 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 Man, do consist in, and are adumbrated
thereby, most sublimely expressed, Psalm cxxxix,
" I will praise thee, 0 Lord,  fo* I  am fearfully
and wonderfully made."
  Physicians have remarked four different times,
in which a man is framed and  perfected in the
womb: the first moon after coition, being perfect-
ed in the first week, if no  flux happens; which
sometimes falls out through the slipperiness  of the
head of the matrix, that slips over like a rose-bud,
and opens suddenly.  The second time of forming 
           Aristotle's  master-piece.           13

is assigned, when nature makes manifest mutation
in the conception, so that all the substance seems
congealed flesh and blood, and happens 12 or 14
days after  copulation.  And  though this fleshy
mass abounds with inflamed blood, yet it remains
undistinguishable, without form, and may be call-
ed an embryo, and compared to seed  sown in the
ground, which, through heat and moisture, grows,
by degrees, to a perfect form,  in plant or grain.
The third time assigned to make up this fabric is
when the principal  parts show themselves plain
as the heart, whence  proceed the arteries; the
brain, from which the nerves, like small threads,
run  through the whole body; and  the liver  that
divides the chyle from the blood, brought to it by
the venna porta.  The two first are fountains of
life,  that nourish every part of the body;  in  fra-
ming which, the faculty of the womb is buried, from
the conception to the eight  day of the first month.
The fourth  and last, about  the thirtieth day, the
outward parts are seen nicely wrought, distinguish-
ed joints.   From which time it is no longer an
embryo, but a perfect child.
   Most males are perfect by the thirtieth day, but
females seldom to the  forty-second or forty-fifth
day, because the heat of the womb is  greater in,
producing  the male than the female.  And, for
the same reason, a woman going with a male child,
quickens in three months; but going with a fe-
male, rarely under four: at which time its  hair
and nails come forth; and the child begins to  stir,
kick, and move in the womb ; and then the  wo-
man is troubled with a loathing of her meat, and
greedy longing fdr things contrary to nutriment,
as coals, rubbish, chalk, &c.  which desire often
occasions abortion and  miscarriage.  Some  wo
men have been so extravagant as to long for hob-
nails leather,  man's flesh, horse flesh,  and other
                      2 
14          Aristotle's master-piece.
unnatural as well as unwholesome food ; for want
of which  thing, they have  either miscarried, or
the  child has  continued  dead  in the  womb for
many days, to the imminent hazard of their lives.
But  I  shall  now proceed to show by  what real
means the child is  sustained in the womb, and
what posture it there remains in.
 The Effigies of a MAID all Hairy, and an INFANT that
A'  was born Black, by the imaginations of the Parents.
  Various are the opinions about  nourishing the
foetus in  the womb.   Some  say  by blood only,
from the  umbilical vein; others, by chyle taken
in by the  mouth.  But it  is nourishrd diversely,
according to the several  degrees  of perfection;
and an egg passes from  a conception to  a foetus
ready for birth.   But, first, let  us explain  the
meaning of the ovum or egg.   fn  the  generation
of the foetus there are two principles, active and
passive; the active^s the man's seed, elaborated
in the testicles, out of the arterial blood and ani-
mal spirits; the passive is  an egg, impregnated 
,E s master-piece.          13
by the man's seed.  The nature of conception is
thus : the most spirituous part of man's seed, in
the act of generation, reaching up to the testicles
of the women, which containing divers eggs, im-
pregnates one of them ; and, being conveyed by
the ovaducts to the bottom of the womb, presently
begins to swell bigger and bigger, and drinks in
the moisture 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 little  more perfect, and  that, at the  same
time, the chorin is so very thick, that the liquor
cannot soak through it,  the umbilical vessels be-
gin to be formed, and to  extend the  side of the
amnion,  which they pass through, and all through
the aliantreides and chorin and are implanted in
the  placenta, which gathering upon the chorin,
joins to  the  uterus.  And now the  arteries that
before sent out the nourishment  into  the cavity
of the womb, open by the orifice into the placenta,
where they deposit the said juice, which is drunk up
by the umbilical vein ; conveyed by it to the liver of
the fetus, then to the heart, where  its thin and
spirituous part is turned  into blood, while the
grosser part, descending by the aorta,  enters the
umbilical arteries, and is discharged into its cavity
by those branches that run through the amnion.
  As soon as the  mouth, stomach,  gullet, &c. are
formed so perfectly that the fetus* 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 lacteal veins,  as in
adult persons.
   The fetus being  perfected, at the time before
specified, in  all parts, it lies equally  balanced in
the  centre of the  womb,  en its head, and being
long turned over,  so that the head a little inclines, 
16
Aristotle's master-piece.
 it lays its chin upon its breast, its heels and ancles
 upon its buttocks, its hand on its cheeks, and  its
 thumbs to its eyes; but 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, the head inclining downwards to-
wards the rump-bone, that joins the os  sacrum;
which bone is loosed at the time of birth.
FOKM OF A CHILD IN  THE WOMB.
The learned Hippocrates affirms, that the child 
           Aristotle's  master-piece.           17

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

The Reason why Children are  like their Parents, and that
  the Mother's Imagination contributes thereto; and whether
  the Man or Woman is the cause of the Male or Female
  Child.

  In the case of similitude, nothing is more power-
ful than the imagination of the mother ; for if she
fix her eyes  upon any object, it  will so impress
her mind, that it oftentimes so  happens  that the
child has a representation thereof on some part of
its body.   And  if,  in the act of copulation, the
woman earnestly look upon  the man, and fix her
mind upon him, the child  will resemble its father.
Nay, if a woman, even in  unlawful copulation, fix
her mind on her husband,  the child will resemble
him, though he did not beget it.   The same effect 
18
Aristotle's master-piece.
 hath imagination  in  occasioning  warts, stains,
 mole-spots, and dartes ; though indeed they some-
 times happen through frights, or extravagant long-
 ing.  Many women, being with child, on seeing a
 hare cross the road before them, will, through the
 force of imagination,  bring forth a child with  a
 hairy lip.  Some children are born with flat noses
 and wry mouths, great blubber lips, and ill-shaped
 bodies;  which must be ascribed to the imagina-
 tion of the mother, who hath cast her  eyes and
 mind upon some ill-shaped creature.   Therefore
 it behoves all women  with  child,  if possible,  to
 avoid such sights, or, at least, not to regard them
 But though the mother's imagination may contri-
 bute  much to the features of the child, yet,  in
 manners, wit, and propension of the mind, expe-
 rience tells us, that children are commonly of the
 condition with their parents, and  same tempers.
 But the vigour or disability of persons in the act
 of copulation many times causes it to be other-
 wise ; for  children got through  the  heat  and
 strength of desire, must needs  partake more  of
 the nature and inclinations of their  parents, than
 those begotten with  desires more  weak;  and
 therefore, the children begotten by men in their
 old age, are generally weaker than those begotten
 by  them in their youth.   As to the  share which
 each of the parents has in begetting the child, we
 will give the opinion of the ancients about it.
  Though it is apparent, say they, that the man's
 seed is the chief efficient beginning of the action,
 motion, and generation; yet that the woman af-
fords seed,  and  effectually  contributes  in that
point to the procreation of the child, is evinced by
 strong reasons.  In the first place, seminary ves-
 sels had been given her in vain, and genical testi-
cles inverted,  if the woman  wanted seminal ex-
 crescence, for nature does nothing  in vain j  and 
Aristotle's master-piece.
19
therefore we  must grant, they are  made for the
use of seed and procreation, and placed in  their
proper parts,  both the testicles and  receptacles of
seed,  whose nature is to operate and afford virtue
to the seed.   And to prove this, there needs no
stronger argument, say they, than that if a woman
do not use copulation to eject her seed,  she  often
falls into strange diseases, as appears by young wo-
men and virgins.   A second reason they urge is,
that although the society of a lawful bed consists
not although  in these things, yet it is apparent the
female sex are  never better pleased,  nor appear
nore  blithe and jocund, than when  they are  satis-
fied this way : which is an inducement to believe,
they  have more  pleasure and titulation  therein
than men.  For, since nature causes much delight
to accompany ejection, by  the breaking forth of
the swelling  spirits, and  the  swiftness of the
nerves; in which case, the operation on the wo-
man's part is double, she  having an  enjoyment
both  by ejection and reception, by which she is
more  delighted in the act.
  Hence it is, say they,  that the child  more fre-
quently resembles the mother  than the father, be-
cause the mother contributes most  towards it.
And they think it may be further instanced,  from
the endeared  affection they bear them; for  that,
besides  their contributing seminal matter,  they
feed and nourish the child with  the purest fount-
ain of  blood, until  its  birth.   Which opinion
Galen affirms, by allowing children  to participate
most  of the mother;  and ascribes the difference of
sex to the operation  of the menstrual blood; but
the reason of  the likeness, he refers  to the power
of the seed: for, as the plants receive  more nour-
ishment from fruitful ground, than from  the in-
dustry of the husbandman; so  the infant receives
more  abundance from the mother than the father. 
20
Aristotle's  master-piece.
For 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 mother
best, because they receive the most of their sub-
stance from their  mother : for about nine months
she nourishes  her child  in  the  womb with  her
purest blood; then her love towards it newly born
and its likeness, do clearly show, that the woman
affbrdeth seed, and contributes more  towards ma-
king the child  than the man.
  But in this all the ancients were very erroneous;
for the testicles, so called in women, afford not any
seed,  but are two eggs, like those of fowls, and
other  creatures; neither have they any office,  as
those  of  men,  but are  indeed the ovaria, Avherein
the eggs are nourished by the  sanguinary vessels
dispersed through them ; and from thence one  or
more, as they are fecundated by the man's seed is
separated and conveyed into the womb by the ova-
ducts.  The truth of this  is plain, for if you boil
them, their liquor will be the same colour,  taste,
and consistency, with the taste of bird-eggs.  If
any object that they have no shells,  that signifies
nothing: for the eggs of fowls, while they are in
the ovary, nay, after they are fastened into the ute-
rus, have no shell.  And  though, when they  are
laid, they have one, yet that is  no more that a de-
fence  which nature has provided them against any
outward injury, while they are hatched without the
body; whereas, those of women being hatched
within the body,  need no other fence than the
womb, by which  they are sufficiently  secured.
And this is enough, I hope, for the clearing of this
point.
  As  for the third  thing proposed, as whence
grow  the kind, and whether the man or woman is
the cause of the male or female infant.  The pri- 
Aristotle's master-piece.
21
mary cause we must ascribe to God, as is  most
justly his due, who is the Ruler and Disposer of all
things ; yet he suffers many things to proceed ac-
cording  to  the rules of nature, by  their inbred
motion,  according to usual and natural courses^
without variation ; though indeed by  favour from
on high. Sarah conceived Isaac; Hannah, Samuel;
and Elizabeth, John the Baptist: but these were
all  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 I shall wave them, and proceed to speak
of things natural.
  The ancient physicians and philosophers say,
that since there are two principles out of which the
body of man is made, and which render the  child
like the  parents, and by one or other of the  sex,
viz. seed common to both sexes,  and menstrual
blood, proper to the  woman only ;  the similitude,
say they, must needs consist in the force and vir-
tue of the male or female; so that it  proves  like
the one or other,  according to the quantity afford-
ed by either ; but that the difference  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
children  would abound, and few of the female be
propagated: wherefore the sex is attributed to the
temperament of the active  qualities, which con-
sists in heat and cold, and the nature of the mat-
ter  under them, that is, the flowing of the mens-
truous blood : but now the seed, say they, affords
both force to procreate and form the child,  and
matter for its generation; and in the menstruous
blood there  is both matter  and force; for as the
seed most helps the material  principles, so also
does the menstrual blood the potential seed j which 
22
Aristotle's master-piece.
is, says Galen, blood well concocted by the vessels
that contain it.  So that blood is not only the mat-
ter of generating the child, but also seed, it  being
impossible that menstrual blood hath both princi-
ples.
  The ancients also  say,  that the seed  is  the
stronger efficient, the matter of it being very little
in quantity, but the potential quality of it  is very
strong: wherefore, if these  principles  of  genera-
tion, according to which the sex is made,  were
only, say they, in the menstrual blood, then would
the children be all mostly females ; as, were  the
efficient force in the seed, they would be all males ;
but since both have operation in menstrual blood,
matter predominates in quantity, and in the seed
force and virtue.   And therefore Galen thinks the
child receives its sex rather  from the mother than
from the father ; for, though his seed contributes
a little to the material principle, yet it  is  more
weakly.  But for likeliness,  it is referred rather
to the father than to the mother.   Yet the woman's
seed receiving strength from the menstrual  blood
for  the  space  of  nine months,  overpowers  the
man's as to that particular ; for the menstrual blood
flowing in vessels, rather cherishes  the one than
the other ; from which  it is  plain, the  woman  af-
fords both matter to make,  and force and  virtue
to perfect  the conception :  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 mixing with the woman's
and also  with the menstrual blood, helps to  make
the 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 hath 
ARISTOTLE's MASTER-PIECE.
23
ted them into the paths of error, and run them into
great mistakes.  For their hypothesis of the for-
mation of the embryo, form cotomixture of seed,
and the nourishment of it too in  the menstruous
blood, being wholly false, their  opinion, in this
case, must of necessity  be  so likewise.
  I shall therefore conclude this chapter with ob-
serving, that although a strong imagination of the
mother may often determine the sex, yet, the main
agent in this case is the plastic or formative prin-
ciple, according to those laws and rules given to
us by the wise Creator,  who makes and fashions
it, and therein determines the sex, according to the
council of his will.
                  CHAP. IV.

That Man's Soul is not propagated by the Parents, but is infu-
  sed by its Creator; and can neither die nor corrupt. _ At
  what time it is infused.   Of its  immortality, and Certainty
  of its Resnrrection.

  Man's soul is of so divine a nature and excel-
lency, that man himself cannot comprehend it, be-
ing the infused breath of the Almighty, of an im-
mortal nature,  and not to be comprehended but by
him that gave it.   For Moses, 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
creatures, at his word they were made, and  had
life;  but the creature that God had set  over his
works was his peculiar  workmanship,  formed by
him out of  the dust  of  the earth, and he conde-
scended to  breathe into  his nostrils the breath of
life ;  which seems to denote both care, and,  if we
may  so term it, labour, used about man more than 
24           Aristotle's master-piece.

about all other  creatures; he only partaking and
participating of the blessed divine nature, bearing
God's image in innocence and purity, whilst he
stood firm ;  and when, by his fall, that lively im-
age was defaced, yet  such was the love of the
Creator towards him, that he found out  a  way to
restore him ; the only-begotten Son of the Eternal
Father coming into the world to destroy the works
of the devil, and to raise  up  man from that low
condition to which his sin and fall had reduced
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,
and look into himself, and search diligently his
own mind ; and there he shall see many admirable
gifts and excellent ornaments, that must needs fill
him with wonder and amazement; as reason un-
derstanding,  freedom of will,  memory,  &c. that
plainly show the soul to be descended from a heav-
enly original; and that therefore it is of an infinite
duration, and not  subject  to annihilation.  Yet,
for its many offices and operations whilst in the,
body, it goes under  several denominations :  for,
when it enlivens the body, it is called  the soul;
when it gives knowledge, the  judgment  of the
mind ; and when it recals things past, the memory j
whilst it discourses and discerns,  reason ; whilst
it contemplates, the spirit; while it is the sensitive
parts, the senses.   And  these  are  the  principal
offices, whereby the soul declares  its powers, and
performs its action.   For, being  seated  in  the
highest parts of the body, it diffuseth its force into
every member.  It is not propagated from  the
parents, nor mixed with gross matter, but the in-
fused breath of God, immediately proceeding from
him; not passing from one to another, as was the
opinion of Pythagoras, who held a transmigration
of" the soul; but that the soul is given to every in- 
            Aristotle's master-piece.          25

fant by infusion, is the most received and  ortho-
dox opinion.  And the learned do likewise agree,
that this is done when the  infant is perfected in
the womb, which happens about the 24th day after
conception ; especially for males, who are generally
born at the end of nine months; but in females,
who are not so soon formed and perfected through
defect of heat, not till the 50th day.  And though
this day, in all cases,  cannot  be  truly set  down,
yet Hippocrates has given his opinion,  that it  is
so when the child is formed, and  begins to move,
when born in due season.   In his book of the na-
tures, of infants, he says, if it  be a male, and he be
perfect on the 30th day, and move on the 70th, he
will be born in  the seventh month ; but if he be
perfectly formed on the 35th day, he will move on
the 70th, and be born in the eighth month.  Again
if he be perfectly formed on the 45th day, he will
move on the 90th, and be born in the nine month.
Now, from these 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,  makes up the day of
birth.  As thus, when 35 perfects the form, if you
double it, makes 70 the day of motion ;  and three
times 70 amounts to 210 days ; which, allowing 30
clays to a month, make seven  months; and so you
must consider the rest.  But  as to a female, the
case is different; for it is longer perfecting in the
womb, the mother  ever going  longer with a girl
than a boy, which makes  the account difler; for a
female formed in 30 days, moves not till the 70th
day, and is born in the seventh month ; when she
is formed  on the 40th, she moves  not till the 80th,
and is born in the eighth month;  but if she be per-
fectly formed on the 45th day, she moves  on the
90th, and  is born in the ninth month : but if she
that is formed on the 60th day, moves on the 110th
                     3 
26          Aristotle's master-piece.

day, she will be born in the 10th month.   I  treat
the more largely hereof, that the reader may know
that the reasonable soul is not propagated by the
parents, but is infused by  the Almighty, when
the child hath its perfect form, and is exactly dis-
tinguished in its lineaments.
  Now, as the life of every other creature, as
Moses shows,  is in the blood, so the life of man
consisteth in the soul, which, although subject to
passion, by reason of the gross  composures of the
body, in which it has  a temporary confinement,
yet it is immortal, and cannot in itself corrupt or
suffer change,  it being a spark of the Divine Mind.
And that every man has a peculiar soul  plainly
appears, by the vast difference  between the will,
judgment, opinion, manners, and affections in men.
This David observes, when he says, " God hath
fashioned  the hearts and minds of men ; and has
given to every one his own being, and a soul of its
own nature."  Hence Solomon rejoiced that God
had given him a soul,  and a body agreeable to it.
It has been disputed among  the learned, in what
part of the body the  soul resides: some are of
opinion, its residence is in the middle of the heart
and from thence  communicates itself to  every
part; which Solomon (Prov. iv.) seems to confirm,
when he says, " Keep  thy heart with all diligence
for  out of  it  are the issues  of  life."  But  many
curious physicians, searching the works of nature
in man's anatomy, do affirm,  that its chief seat is
in  the brain,  from whence  proceed the senses,
faculties, and  actions,  diffusing the operation  of
the soiil  through all parts of the body ; whereby
it is enlivened with heat  and force to  the heart,
by  the arteries,  corodities,  or sleepy arteries,
which part upon the  throat; the which, if  they
happen to be  broken or cut,  they  cause barren-
ness, and  if stopped, an apoplexy ; for there must 
Aristotle's  master-piece.           27
necessarily  be ways  through which the spirits,
animal and vital, may have intercourse, and con-
vey native heat from the soul.  For, though the
soul has its chief seat in one  place, it operates in
every part, exercising every member, which are
the soul's instruments by which she discovers her
power.  But if it happen that any of the organical
parts  are out of tune, its whole work is confused,
as appears in idiots and madmen : though in some
of them the  soul,  by a  vigorous  exertion  of  its
power, recovers its innate  strength, and they be-
come  right after a  long despondency in mind : but
in others it  is  not recovered again in this life.
For, as fire under ashes, or the sun obscured from
our sight by thick  clouds,  afford not their lawful
lustre, so  the soul, overwhelmed in moist or mor-
bid matter, is darkened, and reason thereby over-
clouded ; and though reason shines less in children
than in such as are arrived to maturity, yet  no
man must imagine that the soul of an infant  grows
up with the child,  for then would it again decay;
but it suits itself to nature's weakness, and the
imbecility of the body wherein it is placed,  that it
may" operate  the better.  And as the body is more
and more capable of receiving its influnce,  so the
soul does  more and more exert its faculties, hav-
ing 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
that the soul comes not from the  parents,  but is
infused by God.  I shall next prove its immortal-
ity, and so demonstrate the certainty of our resur-
rection.
            Of the Immortality of the Soul.
   That the soul of man is a divine ray, infused by
the Sovereign Creator, I have already proved, and
now come to show, that whatever immediately pro-
ceeds from  him, and participates of his  nature, 
28
Aristotle's master-piece.
must be as immortal as  its original;  for, though
all other creatures are endowed with life and mo-
tion, 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, and  stamped with the Divine image, is of a
different nature ; and though his body be corrup-
tible, yet  his soul, being of an  immortal nature,
cannot perish ; but must, at the dissolution of his
body, return to God, who gave it, either to receive
reward or punishment.   Now, that the body can
sin of itself  is  impossible,  because,  wanting the
soul, which is the principle of life, it cannot act
nor proceed to any thing either good  or evil;  for
could it do so, it  might even sin in the grave; but
it is  plain, that after death there is a cessation ;
for as death leaves us, so judgment will find us.
  Now, reason having evidently demonstrated the
soul's immortality, the Holy Scriptures do abun-
dantly give testimony of the truth of the resurrec-
tion; as the reader may  see by perusing  the 14th
and 19th chapters of Job, and 5th of John.   I shall
therefore  leave the further discoursing of this mat-
ter to divines, whose proper province it is, and re-
turn to treat of the works of nature.
                   CHAP. V.

Of Monsters and monstrous Births; and the several Reasons
  thereof, according to the opinion of the Ancients.   Also,
  whether Monsters are endowed with reasonable Souls; and
  whether Devils can engender; is here briefly discussed.

  By the ancients, monsters  are  ascribed to  de-
praved conceptions, and are designated to be  ex-
cursions of nature, which are vicious one of these 
            Aristotle's .vaster-piece.          29

four ways ; either in figure, magnitude, situation,
or number.
  In figure, when a man bears the character of a
beast, as did the beast in Saxony.  In magnitude,
when one part doth not equalize with another ; as
when one part is too big or too little.
   There was a Monster born at Ravenna, in Italy, of this kind.
      I proceed to explain the cause of their genera-
   tion, which is either divine or natural.  The di-
   vine cause proceeds from God's permissive will
„  suffering  parents  to bring forth  abomination  for
   their filthy and  corrupt affections,  which are let
   loose unto wickedness, like brute beasts that have
   no understanding.  Wherefore  it  was enacted
  t» among the ancient Romans, that those who were
   in any way deformed, should not be admitted into
   religous houses. And  St. Jerome was grieved, in
   his time, to see the deformed and lame offering
   up spiritual sacrifices to God in  religious houses.
   And Keckerman,  by way of inference, excludeth
   all that are ill-shaped from this presbvterian func- 
30          Aristotle's master-piece.
tion in the church.  And that which is of more
force than all, God himself commanded Moses not
to receive such to offer sacrifice among his people;
and he renders the reason, Lev. xxii. 28. " Lest
he pollute my sanctuaries."  Because the outward
deformity of the body is often a sign of the pollu-
tions of the heart, as a curse laid upon  the child
for the incontinency of the parents.   Yet it is not
always so.  Let  us therefore duly examine, and
search out the natural cause of there generation;
which (according to the ancients, who have dived
into the secrets of nature,) is either in the matter
or in the agent;  in the seed, or in the womb.
  The matter may be in default two ways—by de-
fect or by excess ;  by defect, when the child hath
but one arm ; by excess, when it hath three hands
or two heads.  Some monsters are begot 1>\- a wo-
n^n's unnatural lying with beasts : as in the year
1 ;03, there was a monster begotten by a woman's
i vnerating with a dog; which monster,  from the
i.avel upwards, had the  perfect resemblance of its 
Aristotle's master-piece.           31
mother ; but from its navel downwards  it resem-
bled a dog, as you may see by the foregoing figure.
  The agent, or womb, may be in fault three ways:
1st, the formative faculty, which may be too strong
or too weak, by which is procured a depraved fig-
ure : 2dly, In the instrument, or place of concep-
tion ; the evil conformation or disposition whereof
will cause a monstrous birth : 3dly, In the imagi-
native power at the time of conception ; which is
of such a force, that it stamps the character of the
thing imagined on the child.  So that the children
of  an adultress may be like her own husband,
though begot  by another  man, which  is caused
through the force of imagination that the woman
hath  of her own  husband in the act of coition.
And I have heard of a woman, who, at the time of
conception beholding the picture of a blackamoor,
conceived and brought forth an Ethiopian. I will
not trouble you with more human testimonies, but
conclude with a stronger warrant. We read (Gen.
xxx. 31.)  how Jacob, having agreed with Laban
to have all the spotted sheep  for keeping his flock,
to augment his wages, took hazel rods and peeled
white  streaks on them, and laid them before  the
sheep when they came to drink, which coupling
together there, whilst they beheld the  rods, con-
ceived and brought forth young.  ^
  Another monster representing an hairy child.
It was all covered with hair like a  beast.   That
which rendered it more frightful was, that its na-
 vel was in the place where the nose should stand,
 and its eyes placed where the mouth should have
 been ; and its mouth was in the chin.   It was of
 the male kind,  and was born in France, in  the
 year 1597,  at a town  called Aries, in  Provence,
 and lived a few  days, frightening all that beheld
 it.   It was looked upon as a forerunner of those
 desolations which soon after happened  in  that 
32           ARISTOTLE S MASTER-PIECE.

kingdom, where tmen towards each  other were
more like beasts than human creatures.,
Where children thus are born with hairy coats,
Heaven's wrath unto the kingdom it denotes.
There was a Monster born at Nazara, in the Year 1630.  It had four
 arms and four legs, being of the same form as the Figure below.
  Likewise, in the reign of Henry III, there was a
woman delivered of a child, having  two heads and
four arms, and the bodies were joined at the back 
            Aristotle's master-piece.           33

side ;  the heads were so placed, that thjjy looked
contrary ways ; each had two  distinct -arms and
hands: they would both laugh, both speak, and
both cry, and be hungry together ; sometimes the
one would speak, and the other would keep silence,
and sometimes both speak together.  It lived sev-
eral years, but one outlived the other three years,
carrying the dead one (for there was no parting
them,) till it  fainted with  the  burden,  and more
with the stench of the dead carcase.
  The imagination also works  on the child, after
conception, for which we have a pregnant instance.
  A worthy gentlewoman in  Suffolk,  who being
with child, and passing by a butcher  killing  his
meat, a drop of blood sprung on her face ; where-
upon she said, her child would have a blemish on
its face ;  and, at the birth, it was found marked
with a red spot.
  It is certain, that monstrous birth often happen
by means of undue copulation: for some there are,
who having been long absent from.one another,
and having an eager desire for enjoyment, consid- 
 34           aristoyle's master-piece.
 er not as they ought to do as their circumstances
 require.  And if it happen that they come togeth-
 er when the woman's menses are flowing, and not-
 withstanding proceed to the act of copulation,
 which is both unclean and unnatural, the issue of
 such copulation  dose often prove monstrous, as a
just punishment for doing what nature forbids.
And, therefore,  though men should be ever so
eager for it, yet  women, knowing their own con-
ditions, should at such times refuse their company.
And though such copulations do not always pro-
duce monstrous  births, yet the children, then be-
gotten, are generally heavy, dull and sluggish, and
defective in their understandings, wanting the vi-
vacity and liveliness with which children got in
proper seasons are endowed.
  By the following figure you may see that though
some of  the members may be  wanting, yet they
are%upplied by other members.
It remains now that I make some inquiry, wheth- 
            Aristotle's master-piece.           35

er those that are born monsters have reasonable
souls, and are capable of resurrection.  And here
both divines and physicians are generally of opin-
ion  that those who, according  to the  order of ge-
neration deduced from our first parents,  proceed
by natural means from  either sex, though their
outward shape may be deformed and monstrous,
have notwithstanding a reasonable soul, and con-
sequently their bodies are capable  of a resurrec-
tion, as other men's and women's are : but those
monsters that are not begotten by men but are the
product of women's unnatural lusts in copulating
with other creatures, shall  perish as the brute
beasts, by whom they were begotten, not having
a reasonable soul, or any breath of the Almighty
infused into them; and such can never be capable
of a resurrection.  And the same is  also true of
imperfect and abortive births.              ^
  Some are of opinion, that monsters may be en-
gendered by some  infernal  spirit.  Of this mind
was Agidus Facius, speaking of a deformed mon-
ster born at Cracovis ; and Hironamus Gardanus,
wrote of a maid that was got with child of a devil,
she thinking it  had been a fair young man.  The
like also is recorded by  Vicentius, of the prophet
Merlin, that he was begotten by an evil spirit..
But what a repugnance would it be both to religion
and nature,  if the  devils could beget men; when
we  are taught to belive, that not any  was ever be-
gotten without human  seed,  except the Son of
God ;  the devil then being a spirit, and having no
corporeal substance, has therefore no seed of ge-
neration : to say that he can use the act  of gene-
ration effectually  is to  affirm, that he can make
something of nothing, and consequently to  affirm
the devil to be  God,  for creation belongs to God
only.  Again, if the  devil  could assume to him-
self a human body and enliven the faculties of it 
36           aristqtle's master-tiece.

and cause it to  generate, as some affirm he can,
yet this  body must bear the image of the devil.
And it borders upon blasphemy to think, that God
should so far give leave to the devil,  as out of
God's image to raise his owa diabolical offspring.
In the school of Nature we are taught the contrary.
viz. that like begets like : therefore of a devil can-
not man be born.  Yet it is not denied, but that
devils transforming themselves into human shapes
may abuse both men  and women, and with wick-
ed people use  carnal  copulation  ; but that any
such unnatural conjunction can bring forth a hu-
man creature is contrary to nature and religion.
                  CHAP. VI.

O^fzhe happy State of Matrimony,  as it is appointed by God;
  the true Felicity that redounds thereby to either Sex ; and
  to ivhat end it is ordained.

  Without  doubt, the uniting of hearts  in holy
wedlock is of all conditions the happiest; for then
a man has a second self  to  whom he  can reveal
his thoughts; as well as a sweet companion in his
labour ; he has one in whose breast, as in  a safe
cabinet, he may repose his inmost secrets,  espe-
cially where  reciprocal love and inviolate faith is
settled : for there no care, fear, jealousy, mistrust,
or hatred  can ever interpose.  For what man ever
hated his  own flesh 1  And truly a wife, if rightly
considered, as our grandfather Adam well observ-
ed, 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 or-
dain so near a union, and that  for two causes ; the
1st, for increase of posterity ; the 2d, to  bridle
man's wandering desires and affections ; nay, that 
Aristotle's  master-piece.
37
they might be yet happier, when God had joined
them together he " blessed them ;" as  in Gen. ii.
Columila, contemplating this happy state,  tells,
out of the Economy  of Xenophon, that the mar-
riage-bed is not only the most pleasant, but pro-
fitable  course of  life, that may be entered on for
the preservation and increase of posterity. Where-
fore, since marriage is the most safe, sure, and
delightful  situation of mankind, who is exceeding
prone,  by the dictates of nature, to propagate his
like, he does in no ways provide amiss  for his own
tranquillity who enters into it, especially when he
comes  to maturity of years.
  There are many abuses in  marriage, contrary
to what is  ordained, the  which in the ensuing
chapter, I shall expose to view.  But to proceed:
seeing our blessed Saviour and his holy apostles
detested unlawful lusts, and pronounced those  to
be  excluded the kingdom of heaven that polluted
themselves with adultery and whoring; I cannot
conceive what face  persons have to colour their
impieties, who, hating matrimony,  make  it their
study how they may live  licentiously; for, in  so
doing, they rather  seek to themselves  torment,
anxiety, and disquietude, than certain pleasure ;
besides  the hazard of their immortal soul; and
certain it is, mercenary love, (or, as the wise man
calls it, harlot-smiles,) cannot be true and sincere,
and therefore not pleasant, but rather  a net laid
to  betray such as trust in  them into all, mischief,
as  Solomon observes of the young man void  of
understanding, who turned aside to the harlot's
house, " as a bird to the snare of the fowler, or as
an ox to  the slaughter,  till a dart was  struck
through his liver."  Nor  in  this  case can they
have children, those endearing pledges of conju-
gal affection: or, if they have, they will rather re-
dound to their shame than comfort, bearing the
                       4 
38          Aristotle's master-piece.   -
odious brand of bastards.   Harlots, likewise,  arc
like swallows, flying in the summer season of
prosperity ; but the black stormy weather of adver-
sity coming, they take wings and fly into other re-
gions—that is, seek after other lovers ;  but a vir-
tuous chaste wife fixing her entire love upon her
husband, and submitting to  him as her head and
king, by whose directions she ought to steer in all
lawful courses, will,  like a faithful  companion,
share patiently with him  in all adversities, run
with cheerfulness through all difficulties and dan-
gers, though ever so hazardous, to preserve or as-
sist him, in poverty, sickness,  or  whatever other
misfortunes may  befall  him, acting according  to
her duty in all things: but a proud imperious har-
lot will do no more than she lists, in the sunshine
of prosperity; and, like a horse-leech, ever  cra-
ving, and never satisfied ; still seeming displeas*ed,
if all her extravagant cravings be  not  answered;
not regarding the ruin and  misery  which she
brings upon him by those means, though she seem
to doat upon him,, using to confirm her hypocrisy
with crocodile tears, vows, and swoonings, when
her cully is to depart awile, or seems but to deny
her immoderate desires *. yet this  lasts no longer
than she can gratify her appetite, and  prey upon
his fortune.
  Now, on  the  contrary, a loving, chaste,  and
even-tempered wife, seeks what she may do to pre-
vent such dangers, and in every condition does all
to make him easy.  And, in a word,  as there  is
no content in the embraces of a harlot, so there is
no greater joy than in the reciprocal affection and
endearing embraces of a loving, obedient,  and
chaste wife.   Nor is  that the  principal end for
which matrimony was ordained, but that the man
might follow the law of  his creation, by increasing
his kind, and replenishing the earth j for this was 
           Aristotle's master-piece.            39

the injunction laid upon him in Paradise,  before
his fall.  To conclude, a virtuous wife is a crown
and ornament to her  husband, and her price is
above  rubies; but  the ways of a harlot are de-
ceitful.
                 CHAP. VIL

Of Errors in Marriage ; Wliy they are ; and the Prejudicei
                    of them.
  By errors in marriage, I mean the unfitness of
the persons  marrying* to enter into this state, and
that both with respect to age, and the constitution
of their bodies; and therefore those that design to
enter into that condition ought to observe their
ability, and not r-un themselves into inconvenien-
ces ; for those that marry too young may be said
to marry unseasonably, not considering their in-
ability, nor examining the force  of nature ; for
some, before they are ripe for  the consummation
of so weighty a matter, who either rashly, of their
own accord, or by the instigation of procurers, or
marriage brokers, or else forced thereto by their
parents who covet a large dowry, take upon them
this yoke to  their prejudice; by which some, be-
fore the expiration of a year, have been so  enfee-
bled, that all their vital moisture has been exhaust-
ed ; which hath not  been restored again  without
great trouble, and the use of medicines.  Where-
fore, my advice is, that it is no ways convenient
to suffer children, or such as  are  not of age, to
marry or get  children.
   He that proposes to marry, and wishes to enjoy
happiness in that state, should choose a wife de-
scended from honest  and temperate parents ;  she
being chaste, well bred, and  of  good manners. 
 40           Aristotle's master-piece.

 For if a woman hath good qualities, she hath por-
 tion enough.  That of Alcmena, in Plautus, is
 much to the purpose, where he brings in a young
 woman speaking thus:
     I take not that to be my dowry, which
      The vulgar tort do wealth and honour call,
     But all my wishes terminate in this,
      T' obey my husband, and be chaste withal;
     To have God's fear, and beauty, in my mind,
     To do those good wh'are virtuously inclined.

And I think she was in the right, for such a wife
is more precious than rubies.
  It is certainly the duty of parents to be careful
in bringing up their children in the ways of virtue,
and to have regard to their honour and reputation;
and especially of virgins, w*hen  grown to be mar-
riageable. For, as has been before noted, if through
the too much severity  of parents, they may be
crossed in their love, many of them throw them-
selves into the unchaste arms of the next alluring
tempter that comes in the way, being, through the
softness and flexibility of their  nature, and the
strong desire they have after what nature  strong-
ly incites them to easily induced to beleive men's
false vows of promised  marriage,  to  cover  their
shame; and then too late their parents repent of
their severity, which has brought an indelible stain
upon their families,                '
  Another error in  marriage is,  the inequality of
years in the parties married ; such as for a young
man who, to advance his fortune, marries a  woman
old enough to be his grandmother; between whom
for the  most part,  strife, jealousies,  and  discon-
tents, are all the blessings which crown the genial
bed, it being impossible for such to have any chil-
dren.  The  like may be said, though with  a little
excuse, when an old doting  widower  marries  a
virgin in the prime  of her youth and her vigour
who. while he vainly strives to please her, is ther*»- 
             Aristotle's master-piece.           41

by 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 soon are soon exhausted
and fall into consumptions and divers other dis-
eases, and those that procrastinate and marry un-
seemly,  fall into the like  inconveniences;  on the
other side,  having only  this honour, if old men
they become young cuckolds, especially if their
wives have not been trained up in the paths of vir-
tue,  and lie too much open to  the importunity and
temptation of lewd and debauched men.  And thus
much for the errors of rash and inconsiderate mar-
riages.
                  CHAP. VIIL

The Opinion of the Learned concerning Children conceived and
  born within Seven Months; with Arguments upon the Subject
  to prevent Suspicion of Incontinency, and bitter Contests on
  that Account.  To which are added, Rules to know the Dis-
  position of Man's Body by the Genital Parts.

  Many bitter quarrels happen between men and
their wives, upon the man's  supposition that his
child comes too soon, and by consequence, that he
could not be the  father: whereas, it is through
want of understanding the secrets of  nature, that
brings the man into that error; and which, had he
known, might have cured him of his suspicion and
jealousy.
  To remove which, I shall  endeavour to  prove,
that it is possible, and has been frequently known,
that children  have been born at  seven months.
The cases of this nature that have happened have
made work  for the lawyers, who have left it to the
physicians to judge, by viewing the child, whether 
42          ARISTOTLE'S MASTER-PIECE.

it be a child of seven, eight, or ten months. Paul,
the counsel, has this passage in his 19th Book of
Pleadings, viz.  u It is now a received truth, that
a perfect child may be born in the seventh month,
by the authority of the learned Hippocrates ; and
therefore we must believe, that a child born at the
end of the seventh month  in lawful matrimony,
may be lawfully begotten."
  Galen is of opinion, that there is no certain time
set  for  the  bearing  of  children ; and  that from
Pliny's authority, who makes mention of a woman
that went  13 months with child;  but as  to what
concerns  the  seventh  month, a learned author
says, " I know several married people  in  Holland
that  had twins born in  the  seventh month,  who
lived to old  age, having lusty bodies and lively
nynds. Wherefore their  opinion is absurb who as-
sert that a child at seven months  cannot be per-
fect and long-lived ; and that it cannot in all parts
be perfect till the ninth month."   Thereupon this
author proceeds to tell  a passage from  his own
knowledge, viz.   " Of late there happened a great
disturbance among us, which  ended not  without
bloodshed  ; and was occasioned by a virgin, whose
chastity had been violated, descending of a noble
family  of unspotted fame ;  several charged  the
fact upon the judge, who was president of a city
in Flanders, who firmly denied it, saying, he was
ready to give his oath that he never had any car-
nal  copulation with her, and that he would not
father that which  was none of his; and  farther
argued, that he verily believed that it was a child
born in  seven months, himself being many miles
distant from the mother of it, when it was conceiv-
ed.   Upon which the judges decreed,  that the
child should be viewed by able physicians and ex-
perienced  women, and that they should make their
report.  They having made diligent  inquiry, all 
            Aristotle's master-piece.          43

of them, with 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 mother's womb but 27 weeks and some
odd days ; but if she should have gone  full nine
months, the child's parts  and limbs would have
been more firm and strong, and the structure of
the body  more compact;  for the skin  was  very
loose, and the breast-bone  that defends the heart,
and the gristle that lay  over  the  stomach, lay
higher than naturally they should be, not  plain,
but crooked and sharp, ridged or pointed like those
of a young chicken hatched in the beginning of
spring.
  " And being a female it  wanted nails  upon the
joints of the fingers ; upon which, from the mascu-
lous cartilaginous matter of the skin, nails that are
very  smooth  do come,  and by  degrees harden;
she had, instead of nails, a thin skin or film.  As
for her toes, there 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 19 children, and that divers of
them had been born and lived at 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
cases, the revolution of the moon ought to be ob-
served, which perfects itself in four bare weeks,
or somewhat less than 28  days; in which space
of the revolution, the blood being agitated by the
force of the moon, the courses of the women flow
from them ; which  being  spent, and the  matrix
cleansed  from the menstrous blood, which happens
on the fourth day, then, if :: man on the seventh
day lie with his wife, the  copulation is most na- 
44
Aristotle's master-piece.
 tural, and then is the conception best: and a child
 thus begotten may be born in the seventh month
 and prove very healthful.   So that on this report
 the supposed father was pronounced innocent, on
 proof that he was 100 miles distant all that month
 in which the child was begotten ; as for the mother
 she strongly denied that she knew the  father, be-
' ing forced in the  dark; and so  through fear and
 surprise, was left in ignorance."
   As for coition, it ought  not  to  be used unless
 the parties be in health, lest it turn to the disad-
 vantage of the children  so begotten, creating in
 them, through the abundance of ill  humours, di-
 vers languishing diseases.  Wherefore,  health is
 no way better discerned  than by the  genitals of
 the man ; for which reason midwives, and other
 skilful women, were formerly wont to see  the tes-
 ticles of children,  thereby to conjecture their tem-
 perature and state of body : and young  men may
 know thereby the signs or symptoms of death ; for
 if the cases of the testicles be loose and  feeble,
 and the cods fall  down, it denotes that  the  vital
 spirits, which 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 event may exactly
 answer the prediction, it is necessary to consider
 what part of the body the disease possesseth  ; for
 if it chance to be the upper part  that is afflicted  as
 the head or stomach, then it will not so well appear
 by the members which are unconnected with such
 grievances;  but the lower  part of the body  ex-
 actly sympathising with  them, their liveliness or
 the contrary,  makes it  apparent;  for  nature's
 force, and  spirits that have there intercourse
 first manifest themselves therein; which occasions
 midwives to feel the genitals of children, to know
 in what part the grief is residing and whether life
 or death be portended thereby, the symptoms be- 
Aristotle's master-piece.
45
ing strongly  communicated to the vessels,  that
have  their intercourse with the  principle  seat
of life.
                   CHAP. IX

Of the Green-sickness in Virgins, with its Causes, Signs, and
  Cures; together with the chief Occasion of Barrenness in
   Women, and the Means to remove the Cause, and render
  them fruitful.

   The green-sickness is so common  a distemper
in virgins, especially those of a phlegmatic com-
plexion,  that it is easily discerned, showing itself
by discolouring the face, making it look  green,
pale, and of a dusty colour, proceeding from raw
and indigested humours : nor doth it only appear
to the eye, but sensibly  affects the  person with
difficulty of breathing, pains in  the head, palpita-
tion of the heart, with unusual beatings and small
throbbings of the arteries in the temples, neck,
and back, which often  casts them  into fevers,
when the humour  is over-vicious; also loathing
of meat, and the distension of the hypochondriac
part, by reason of the inordinate  effluxion  of the
menstrous blood to the greater vessels ;  and from
the abundance of humours, the whole body is often
troubled with swellings,  or at  least  the thighs,
legs and ancles, all above the heels;  there is also
a weariness of the body, without any  reason for it.
   The Galenical physicians affirm, that  this dis-
temper proceeds from the womb; occasioned by
the gross, vicious, and rude humours arising from
several inward causes; but there are  also outward
causes, which have a share in the production of it;
as taking cold in the feet, drinking of water,  in-
temperance  of  diet, eating  things  contrary to 
46
Aristotle's master-piece.
nature, viz. raw or burnt flesh, ashes,  coals, old
shoes,  chalk, wax, nut-shells,  mortar, lime, oat-
meal, tobacco-pipes, &c, which occasion both  a
suppression   of the  menses,  and  obstructions
through the whole body; therefore the first  thing
necessary to  vindicate the cause is matrimonial
conjunction,  and such copulation as may prove
satisfactory to her that is afflicted :  for then the
menses will  begin to flow,  according  to  their
natural and  due  course, and the humours being
dispersed, will  soon waste themselves ;  and then
no more matter being admitted to increase them,
they will vanish, and a good temperament of body
will return ; but in case this  best remedy cannot
be had soon enough, then 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 be bled
sparingly, especially if the blood be good.  If the
disease be of  any continuance, then it is to be era-
dicated by purging, preparation of the humour
first considered, which may be done by the virgin's
drinking the  decoction of guiacum, with dittany
of Crete; but the best purge  in this case ought to
be made of aloes, agric, senna,  rhubarb ; and for
strengthening the  bowels and removing obstruc*
tions, chalybeate medicines are chiefly to be  used-
The diet must be moderate, and sharp things by
all means avoided.
  And now since barrenness daily creates discon-
tent, and that discontent breeds indifference be-
tween  man  and  wife, or, by  immediate  grief,
frequently casts the woman into one or other dis-
temper, I shall  in the next place treat thereof.

             OF  BARRENNESS.

  Formerly, before women came to»the marriage-
bed, they were first searched  by the midwife and 
Aristotle's master-piece.          47
those only which she allowed of as fruitful were
admitted.   I hope, therefore,' it  will not be amiss
to show you how they may prove themselves, and
turn barren ground into a fruitful soil.  Barren-
ness is a deprivation of the life and power which
ought to be in seed to procreate and propagate ;
for   which end  men  and women were  made.
Causes  of barrenness may be overmuch  cold  or
heat, drying up the seed, and corrupting it, which
extinguishes the life of the seedr making it water-
ish and unfit for  generation.  It may be caused
also by the  not  flowing  or overflowing of the
courses, by swelling, ulcers,  and inflammations of
the  womb, by an  excrescence  of  flesh growing
about the mouth of the matrix, by the mouth  of
the matrix being turned to  the back or side, by
the fatness of the body, whereby the mouth of the
matrix is closed up, being pressed with the omen-
tum or caul, and the matter of the seed is turned
to fat;  if she be  of a lean  and  dry  body, and
though she do conceive, yet the fruit of her body
will wither before it come  to  perfection, for want
of nourishment.  One main cause of barrenness is
attributed to want of a  convenient moderating
quality, which the woman  ought to have with the
man ; as, if he be hot, she  must be cold: if he be
dry, she must be moist; but  if they be both dry
or both moist of  constitution, they  cannot propa-
gate : and yet, simply  considered  of themselves,
they are not barren ; for he and she who were be-
fore as the barren fig-tree, being joined to an apt
constitution, become as the  fruitful vine.  And
that a man and woman being every way of like
constitution cannot procreate, I  will bring nature
itself for a testimony, who hath made man'bf the
better constitution than woman, that the "quality
of the one may moderate the quality of the other.
  Signs of Barrenness. If barrenness doth pro- 
 48           Aristotle's master-piece.

 ceed  from overmuch heat, she is of dry body,
 subject to anger, hath black hair, quick pulse, her
 pugations flow but little, and that with pain,  and
 she loves to play in the courts of Venus.  But  if
 it comes by cold, then are the  signs contrary to
 those  above  mentioned.  If  through  the  evil
 quality of the womb, make a suffumigation of red
 styrax, myrrh,  cassia-wood,  nutmeg, and  cinna-
 mon ; and let her receive the fume of it into the
 womb, covering  her very close: and if the odour
 so received passeth through the body to the mouth
 and nostrils, she is fruitful. But if she feels not
 the fume in her mouth and nose, itargu.es barren-
 ness one of these ways—that the spirit of the seed
 is either through cold extinguished, or  through
 heat dissipated.  If any woman be suspected to
 be unfruitful, cast  natural  brimstone, such as is
 digged out of the mine, into her  urine; and  if
 worms breed therein, she is not  barren.
  Prognostics.   Barrenness makes  women  look
 young, because they are free from those pains and
 sorrows which other women  are accustomed to.
 Yet they have not the full perfection of health
which fruitful women do enjoy, because  they  are
not rightly purged  of the menstruous blood and
 superfluous seed, which are the principal causes
of most uterine diseases.
  Cure, First, the  causes  must be  removed  the
 womb  strengthened,  and the  spirits of  the seed
 enlivened.
  If the womb be over-hot, take syrup of succory
 with rhubarb, syrup of violets, endive, roses, cassia'
 purslain.  Take  of endive, water  lilies, 'borage
 flowers, of each  a  handful; rhubarb, mirobalans
 of each three drachms ; with water make a decoc-
 tion ;  and to the straining  of the syrup add
 electuary of violets one ounce, syrup of cassia half
 an ounce, manna three drachms ;  make a potion. 
Aristotle's master-piece.
49
 Take of syrup of mugwort one ounce, syrup  of
 maiden-hair two ounces, pulv. elect, triasand one
 drachm ; make a  julep.  Take  prus. salt, elect.
 ros. mesua, of each three  drachms, rhubarb one
 scruple, and make a bolus ; apply to the reins and
 privities fomentations of the juice of lettuce, vio-
 lets, roses, malloes, vine leaves, and nightshade;
 anoint the  secret parts  with the cooling unguent
 of Galen.
  If the power of the seed be extinguished by cold,
 take every morning two spoonfuls of cinnamon wa-
 ter, with one scruple of mithridate.  Take syrup
 of calamint,  mugwort,  and betony, of each one
 ounce;  waters of pennyroyal, feverfew,  hyssop,
 and sage,  of  each two  ounces; make  a julep.
 Take oil of anniseed two scruples and  a half;
 diacimini,  diacliathidiamosei, and diagla-angae, of
 each one drachm, sugar four ounces, with  water
 of cinnamon, and make  lozenges; take of them a
 drachm and a half twice a day, two hours before
 meals ;  fasten cupping-glasses to the hips and
 belly.  Take of styrax  and calamint  one ounce,
 mastich, cinnamon, nutmeg, lign. aloes, and frank-
 incense, of each half an ounce ; musk ten grains,
 ambergris  half a scruple ; with rose-water make
 a confection, divide it into four equal parts; of one
 part make  a pomum oderaium to smell to, if she
 be not hysterical;  of the  second make a mass  of
 pills, 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 suffumigation
 for  the womb.
  If the faculties of the  womb be weakened, and
 the life of the seed suffocated by over much hu-
 midity flowing to those parts ; take of betony, mar-
joram, mugwort, penny-royal, and baim, of each a
 handful; roots of alum and fennel, of each two
 drachmsj  anniseed and  cummin,  of each one
                      5 
50          Aristotle's master-piece.
 drachm, with sugar and water  a sufficient quan-
 tity ; make a syrup, and take three ounces every
 morning.
   Purge with the following things : take of thedi-
 agnidium two grains, spicierum of castor a scruple,'
 pillfoedit two  scruples, with  syrup of mugwort ;
 make  six  pills.  Take spec,  cliagem, diamoser,
 diamb.of each one drachm ; cinnamon one drachm
 and a half; cloves, mace, and nutmeg, of each half
 a drachm ; sugar six ounces, with  water of fever-
 few ; make lozenges, to be taken every morning.
 Take of the  decoction of sarsaparilla, and virga
 aurea, not forgetting sage,  which  Agrippa,  won-
 dering at its operation, hath honoured with the
 name of sacra herba, a holy herb.   And it is re-
 corded by Dodona)us in the History of Plants, lib.
 ii. cap. 77, that after a great mortality among the
 Egyptians, the surviying women, that they might
 multiply quickly, were commanded to drink the
juice of sage, anoint the genitals with oil of anni-
 seed and spikenard.  Take mace, nutmeg, cinna-
 mon, styrax,  and  amber,  of each  one drachm ;
 cloves, laudanum, of each half a drachm ; turpen-
 tine, a sufficient  quantity ;■ trochisks,  to smooth
the womb.  Take roots of valerian and elecampane,
of each one pound ;  galanga, two ounces ; origan,
lavender, marjoram, betony, mugwort, bay-leaves,
calamint, of each a handful: with water make an
infusion, in which let her sit, after she hath her
courses.
  If barrenness proceed from dryness, consuming
the matter of the seed : take every  day  almond
milk, and goat's milk extracted  with honey :  but
often of the root satyrion candied, and of the elec-
tuary of  diasyren.  Take  three wedders'  heads
boil them till all the flesh come  from the  bones •
then take melilot, violets, camomile, mercury  or-
chia with their roots, of each a handful j fenugreek
A 
            Aristotle's master-piece.           51

 nseed, valerian roots, of each one pound; let all
these be decocted in the aforesaid broth,  and let
the woman sit in the decoction up to the navel.
  If barrenness be caused by any proper effect of
the womb,' the cure is set down in the second book.
Sometimes the womb proves barren where there
is no impediment on either side, except  only  in
the manner of the act; as when  in the  emission
of the seed, the man is quick, and the woman too
slow, whereby there is  not  an  emission of both
seeds at the same instant, as the rules of concep-
tion require.   Before  the acts of coition,  foment
the private parts with the decoction of betony,
sage, hyssop, and calamint, and anoint the mouth
and neck of the womb with musk and  civet.
  The cause of barrenness being removed, let the
womb  be corroborated as follows.  Take of bay-
berries, mastic, nugmeg, frankincense, nuts, laud-
anum,  giapanum, of each one drachm, styracis li-
quid, two scruples, cloves half a scruple, ambergris
two grains, then with oil  of spikenard make a
pessary.
  Take of red roses, lapididis hsematis, white frank-
incense, of each half an  ounce.   Sanguis draconis
fine bole, mastic, of each two drachms ; nutmeg,
cloves, of each one drachm ;  spikenard  half a
scruple ; with oil of wormwood ; make a plaister
for the lower part of the belly ;  then suffer her to
eat often of eringo roots candied ; and make an in-
jection only of the roots of satyrion.
   The aptest time for conception is instantly after
the menses are ceased, because then the womb  is
thirsty and dry, apt both to draw the seed, and re-
turn it, by the roughness of the inward superfices.
And besides, in some, the mouth of  the womb is
turned into  the back or •" side, and is not placed
right until the last day of the courses.
   Excess in  all things is to be avoided.  Lay 
52
ARISTOTLE'S MASTER-PIECE.
aside all passions of the mind ; shun study and
care, as  things  that are  enemies  to conception;
for, if a woman conceive under such circumstances,
how wise soever the  parents are, the children at
best will be but foolish ; because the mental facui-
ties of the parent, viz. the understanding and the
rest  (from whence the child derives  its reason)
are,  as it were, confused through the multiplicity
of caTes and  cogitations  ; examples whereof we
have in learned  men, who, after great  study and
care, accompanying with their wives, very  often
beget very foolish children.  A hot and moist air
is most convenient, as  appears by  the  women in
Egypt, who  usually bring forth three or four chil-
dren at one time.
                  CHAP. X.

Virginity, what it is, in what it consists, and how vitiated;
  together with the Opinion of the Learned about the Mutation
  of the Sex in the Womb, during the Operation of Nature in
 forming the Body.

  There are many ignorant people that boast of
their skill in the knowledge of virginity, and some
virgins  have  undergone hard censures through
their  ignorant  determinations; and, therefore,  I
thought it highly  necessary 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
excite our wonder, and command our imitation)
may be freed from the calumnies and detractions
of ignorance and envy ; and so their honours may
continue  as  unspotted as they have  kept their
persons uncontaminated and free of defilement.
  Virginity, in a strict sense,  does  signify  the
M 
             Aristotle's master-piece.          53

prime, the  chief,  the  best  of  any thing,  which
makes men  so desirous of marrying virgins, im-
agining some secret pleasure to be enjoyed in their
embraces, more than in those of widows, or such
as have been lain withal; though not many years
ago, a very  great  person was  of  another  mind;
and,  to  use his  own  expression,—" That the
getting of a maidenhead was  such a piece of
drudgery, as was more proper for a porter  than a
prince.   But this was only his opinion,  for most
men, I am  sure, have  other sentiments.   But to
return to our purpose.
  The curious inquirers into Nature's secrets have
observed, that in young maids in the sinus pudoris,
or in that place  which  is called the neck of the
womb, is that wondrous production, vulgarly cal-
led the  hymen,  but  more rightly the claustrum
virginale ; and  in the French, bouton de  rose, or
rosebud; because  it resembles the bud of  a rose
expanded, or a  convex  gillyflower.  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 altogether lost, when this  duplication is fractur-
ed  and dissipated by  violence ; and when it is
found perfect and entire, no penetration has been
made; and  it  is  the  opinion  of some learned
physicians, that  there is neither hymen,  nor skin
expanded containing  blood in   it, which  divers
think, in the first copulation, flows from the frac-
tured expanse.
  Now this  claustrum, or virginale, or flower, is
composed of four  carbuncles, or  little  buds like
myrtle  berries,  which,  in virgins, are  full and
plump, but in women flag and  hang loose ; and
these are placed in the four angles  of the sinus
 fiudoris, joined together by  little membranes and
 igatures like fibres, each of them situated  in the 
54
Aristotle's master-piece.
 testicles, or spaces between each carbuncle,  with
 which, in a manner, they  are  proportionally dis-
 tended ; which membranes being once delacerated
 denote devirgination; and  many inquisitive, and
 yet ignorant persons, finding their wives defective
 therein  the  first  night  of their marriage, have
 thereupon suspected their chastity, and  concluded
 that another had been there before them.  Now to
 undeceive such, I do affirm, that such  fractures
 happen divers accidental ways, as well as by cop-
 ulation with men,  viz. by violent straining, cough-
 ing, sneezing, stopping of  urine, and violent mo-
 tions of the vessels, forcibly sending  down the
 humours, which, pressing for passage,  break the
 ligatures  or membrane; so that the fracture  of
 that which is commonly  taken for their  virginity,
 or maidenhead, is  no absolute sign of dishonesty,
 though certain it is, that it is broke  in copulation
 oftener than by any other means.
  I have heard, that at an assize  held at Rutland,
 a young  man  was tried for a  rape, in  forcing a
 virgin; when, after divers questions bejng asked,
 and the maid swearing  positively to the matter,
 (naming the time, place, and manner of the action,)
it was upon mature deliberation resolved, that she
should be searched by a  skilful surgeon and two
midwives, who were  to  make their report  upon
oath; which, after due examination, they accor-
dingly did, affirming  that  the  membranes  were
entire, and not delacerated j and that it  was their
opinion, for  that reason,  that  her body had not
been penetrated which so far  wrought  with the
jury,  that the  prisoner  was acquitted: and the
maid afterwards confessed,  she swore against him
out of revenge, he having promised  to marry her,
and afterwards declined it.   And thus 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. 
Aristotle's  master-piece.          55
  This point is of much necessity, by reason of the
different opinions of men relating to it; therefore,
before any thing positive can  be asserted,  it will
be proper  to  recite what has been delivered, as
well in  the negative as affirmative.  And first,
Severus Plinus, who  argues for  the negative,
writes thus :  The genital parts of both sexes are
so unlike  each other in substance, composition,
situation, figure, action, and use, that nothing is
more unlike,  and by how much more all parts of
the body (the breasts excepted,  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,
compared with the other, differ : and if their figure
be thus different, much more their use.  The vene-
real appetite  also proceeds  from  different causes:
for in a man  it proceeds from a desire of emission,
and in a women from a desire of reception : in wo-
men also the chief of these parts are concave and
apt to receive ; but in men  they are more  porous.
All these things being considered, I cannot but
wonder; says he, how  any  one can imagine that
the genital members of the female births should be
changed unto those that belong to the males, since
by those parts only the distinction of the sexes is
made ;  nor can I well  impute the  reason  of  this
vulgar error  to any thing but the mistake of inex-
pert midwives,  who  have  been  deceived  by the
evil conformation of the parts, which,  in some
male births, may have  happened to have some
small protusions,  not  to have been discerned, as
appears by the example  of  a child christened at
Paris by the name of Joan, as a girl,  who after-
wards  proved a boy:  and, on  the contrary, the
overfar extension of the clytoris in female births
may have occasioned the like mistakes.  Thus far
Pliny proceeds in the negative j and yet, notwith- 
56          Aristotle's master-piece.

standing what he hath said, there are divers learn-
ed physicians that have  asserted the affirmative,
of which number Galen is one.  A man, saith he,
is different from a woman in nothing else but hav-
ing his genital members without his body, where-
as a women has them within.  And this is certain,
that if nature, having formed a  male, should con-
vert him into a female, she hath no other task to
perform, but to turn his genital members inward;
and so to 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, oft-times, nature hath made a female
child, and it hath so remained in the womb of the
mother for a month or two ; and after, plenty of heat
increasing in the genital members, they have issued
forth and the child has become a male, yet retaining
some  certain gestures unbefitting  the  masculine
sex, as female actions, a shrill voice, and a more
effeminate  temper than ordinary ; contrary wise,
nature often having made a male, and cold humours
flowing to it,  the genitals have been 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
latter more agreeable to truth; for there is  not
that vast difference between the  genitals of the
two sexes, as Pliny would have us believe there is ;
for a woman has in a manner the same  members
with the man, though they appear not  outward,
but are inverted for the  conveniency  of genera-
tion ;  the chief difference being, that  the one is
solid and the other porous, and  that the principal
reason for changing sexes is, and must be attribu-
ted to, heat or cold, suddenly or slowly contracted,
which operates  according to its greater or lesser
force 
Aristotle's master-piece.           57
                  CHAP. XI

Directions and Cautions for Midwives : and first, how a Mid-
             wife ought to be qualified.

  A Midwife that would acquit  herself well in
her employment, ought by no means to enter upon
it rashly or unadvisedly, but with all  imaginable
caution,  considering  that she is  accountable for
all the mischief that befalls the female through her
wilful ignorance 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 many women and children are lost.
   Now, for a midwife, in relation to her person,
these things ought to be observed, viz.—She must
neither be too old nor too young,  neither extraor-
dinarily fat nor weakened by leanness, but in  a
good habit of body ; nor subject to diseases,  fears
and sudden frights; her  body well shaped,  and
neat in her attire; her hands smooth and small,
her nails ever paired short, not suffering any rings
to be upon her fingers during the time she is do-
ing her office, nor and 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 drow-
 siness, 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 on the rich.
   Her temper should be cheerful and pleasant, that
 she may the better comfort her patient in her la-
 bours.   Nor must she at any time make overmuch 
"58           Aristotle's  master-piece.
haste, though her business should require her in
another case, lest she thereby endanger the mother
or the child.                ♦
  Of spirit, she ought to be wary, prudent, and
cunning: 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 in-
fluence on the well or ill-doing of women and chil-
dren, in the first place, let her  be diligent to ac-
quire whatever knowledge  may be advantageous
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 any exper-
iment  which may  prove distressful to her patient,
nor apply any  unless she has tried them before,
or knows they will do no harm ; imposing 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 term-
ed murder.  If she be sent  for  to one she knows
not, let her be very cautious ere she goes, lest, by
laying an infectious woman, she do injury to others
as sometimes it has happened.  Neither must she
make her house a receptacle for great  bellied wo-
men to discharge their burdens in, lest her house
get an ill-name, and  she  thereby suffer loss.  In
laying of women, if the birth happen  to  be large 
            Aristotle's master-piece.          59

and difficult, she must not seem to be concerned,
but must cheer up the woman, and do what she
can to make her labour easy.   For which she may
find directions in the second book of this work.
  She must never think of any thing but  doing
\\jpll, causing all things to be  in readiness that are
proper for the work, and the  strengthening of the
woman, and receiving of 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 that she be not too hasty
in her business, but wait God's time for the birth ;
lest, through fear, if things should not go  well, it
should make her incapable of giving that assist-
ance which the labouring woman stands in need
of; for when there is most seeming danger, there
is most need of prudence to set things aright.
   And now,  because she can never be a skilful
midwife that knows nothing but -what is to be seen
outwardly, I think it will not be amiss,  but on the
contrary highly necessary, with modesty,  to des-
cribe the generative parts of women, as they have
been anatomized by the learned,  and show the use
of such vessels as contribute to generation.
                 CHAP. XIII.

Of the Genitals of Women, externa  and infernal, to the Ves-
                 sels of the Womb.

  If it were not for public benefit, especially of
the practitioners and professors of the art of mid-
wifery, I would forbear to treat of the secrets of
nature, because  they may be  turned by some into
ridicule  but,  being absolutely necessary  to be 
60
Aristotle's master-piece.
 known, I will not omit them.  These parts expos*
 ed at the bottom of the belly are the fissura magna
 or the great chink, with its labia or lips, the Mons
 Veneris, and the hair ; these are called the pudenda,
 because, when bare, they bring pudor,  or  shame,
 upon a woman.  The fissura magna reaches fronv
 the lower part of the os pubis, to  within an inch
 of the anus;  but it is lesser and  closer in maids
 than in those that  have borne children, and  has
 two lips, which, towards the pubis, grow  thicker
 and more full; and meeting upon the  middle of
 the os pubis,  make that rising hill called Mons
 Veneris,   or  the Hill of Venus.   Next are  the
 nympha andclytoris; the former is of a mcmbrany
 and flammy substance,  spongy,  soft, and partly
 fleshy, of a red colour, in the shape of wings, two
 in number, though, from their rise, they are join-
 ed in an acute angle, producing there a fleshy sub-
 stance, which clothes the clytoris ; and sometimes
 they spread so far, that incision is required to make
 way for the man's instrument of generation.
   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
 situation,  substance, composition, and errection ;
 growing sometimes out of the body  two inches;
but that  never happens unless through extreme
lust or extraordinary  accidents.   This clytoris
 consists of two spongy and skinny bodies, contain-
 ing a distinct original from the os pubis, the head
of it being covered  with a tender skin, having a
hole or passage like the penis or  yard  of  a man,
though not quite through, in which, and the big-
ness, it only differs from it.
   The next things are the fly-knobs, and the great
neck of the womb.   Those knobs  are behind the
wings, being four in number, and resemble myrtle-
berries, being placed quadrangularly, one against 
Aristotle's  master-piece.
61
the other ; and in this place is inserted the orifice
of the bladder, which opens itself into the fissures,
to evacuate the urine ;  for securing of which from
cold, or the like inconveniency, 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 them
two things are to be  observed, which  is the neck
itself, and the hymen, but more properly the claus-
trum virginale, of which before I have discoursed.
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 from  the pleasure of procreation, the sub-
stance of it is sinewy and a little spongy ;  and in
this concavity are divers folds, or obicular plaits,
made by tunicles wrinkled like an expanded rose.
In virgins they plainly appear, but in women that
have often used copulation they are extinguished,
so that the inner side of the womb's neck  appears
smooth, but in  old  women it appears more hard
and grisled.  But though this channel be some-
times writhed and crooked, sinking down, yet, in
the time of copulation, labour, or the monthly pur-
gation, it is erected and extended ; which overten-
sion occasions the pain in child-birth.
   The  hymen,  or  claustrum virginale,  is thai
which closes the neck of the womb, being broken
in first copulation, its use being rather to stay the
untimely courses in virgins than to any other end j
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 displicity
of the two tunicles, which constitute the  neck of
the womb, there are many veins and arteries run-
ning along and  arising from the vessels  on both 
62
Aristotle's .master-piece.
sides of the thighs, and so passing into the neck
of the womb, being  very  large: and the reason
thereof is, that the neck of the bladder requires to
be filled with abundance of spirits, thereby to be
dilated, for its  better taking hold of the penis,
there being great heat required in such motions,
which becomes more intense by the act of friction,
and consumes a considerable quantity of moisture,
in the supply of which, large vessels are altogether
necessary.
  Another cause of the largeness of these vessels
is, by reason the menses make their way through
them, which often occasions women with child to
continue their purgation:  for, though the womb
be shut up, yet  the  neck in the passage  of  the
womb, through which these vessels pass, is open.
In this case there is further to be observed,  that as
soon as you penetrate the pudendum, there appear
two  little  pits  or  holes,  wherein is  contained
humour, which being expunged in time of copula-
tion, greatly delights the woman.
                 CHAP.  XIV.

A Description of the Woman's Fabric, the Preparing Vessels
  and Testicles in Women. As also of the Difference and Eja-
  culatory Vessels.

  In the lower part of  the hypogastrium, where
the lips are widest and broadest, they beino- oreat-
er and. broader thereabout than those of men  for
which  reason they-have likewise broader buttocks
than men ; the womb is joined to its neck, and is
placed between the bladder  and strait-mit which
keep it from swaying or rolling, yet give it liberty
to stretch and dilate itself, and again to contract 
            Aristotle's master-piece.           63

as nature disposeth it.   Its figure is in a manner
round, and not unlike a gourd, lessening a little,
and growing more acute  towards one end, being
knit together by  its proper ligaments; its neck
likewise is joined by its  own substance and cer-
tain 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 those that have borne children,
and those that have borne none : in substance it is
so thick, that it exceeds  a thimble-breath ; which,
after copulation, is so far from decreasing, that it
augments to a  greater proportion : and the more
to strengthen it, it is interwoven with fibres over-
thwart, which are both straight and winding; and
its proper  vessels are veins, arteries, and nerves :
and among these there are two little veins, which
pass from  the spermatic vessels into the bottom
of the womb, and two larger from the neck,  the
mouth of these veins piercing as far as the inward
concavity
   The womb hath two arteries on both  sides of
the spermatic vessels and the  hypogastric, which
accompany the veins; and besides,  there are di-
 vers little  nerves, that are knit and twined in  the
form of a net,  which are also  extended through-
 out, even from the bottom of the pudendum itself,
 being 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 of the
 womb, from the share-bone, piercing through  the
 peritoneum, 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 exquisite feeling; so that if  it  be at  any
 time out of order, being troubled with a schirrosity,
 over fatness, moisture, or relaxation, the  womb is 
64
ARISTOTLE*S MASTER-PIECE.
subjected thereby to barrenness.  In  those that
are with child, there frequently stays a glutinous
matter in the entrance to facilitate the birth; for,
at the time o[ delivery, the mouth of the womb is
opened to such a wideness as is  comformable to
the bigness of the child, suffering an equal dilation
from the bottom to the top.
   As for the preparatory, or spermatic vessels, in
women, they consist of two veins and two arteries
not differing from those of men, but only in their
largeness and manner of insertion ; for the number
of veins and arteries is the  same  as  in  men,  the
right vein issuing from the trunk of  the  hollow
vein descending ; and beside them are two arteries
which flow from the aorta.
   As to the length and breadth of  these vessels,
they are narrower  and  shorter in women than
in men ; only, observe they are more  writhed and
contorted than in men, and  shrinking together, by
reason of their shortness, that they may, by their
looseness, be better  stretched out when occasion
requires it: and those vessels  in  woman are car-
ried in an indirect course through the lesser guts
and testicles, but are mid-way divided into two
branches ; the greater goes to the stones, constitu-
ting a various or winding body, and  wonderfully
inoculating; the lesser branch ending in the womb,
in the inside of which it disperseth itself, and es-
pecially at the higher  part  of  the bottom of  the
womb, for its nourishment, and that part of  the
courses may purge through the vessels; and see-
ing the  testicles of women are seated  near  the
womb, for that cause these  vessels fall not from
the peritoneum, neither make they much passage,
as in men, not extending  themselves in the share-
bone.
   The stones in women, commonly called testicles
perform not the same action as in men ; they are 
ARISTOTLE'S MASTER-PIECE.
65
also different in their  location, bigness, temper-
ature, substance, form, and covering.  As for the
place of their seat, it is in  the hollowness of the
abdomen; neither are they pendulous, but rest on
the muscles of the loins, so that they may, by con-
tracting the greater heat,  be more  fruitful,  their
office being to contain the ova,  or eggs, one of
which being impregnated  by the man's  seed, en-
genders man; yet they differ from those of men
in figure, by  reason of their lessness or flatness
at each end, not being so round or oval; the exter-
nal superfices being likewise more unequal, appear-
ing like the composition of a great many knobs or
kernels mixed together.   There is a  difference
also  in their substance, they being much  more
soft and pliable, loose and not so well compacted.
There  bigness and temperament are likewise dif-
ferent ; for they are much colder,  and  less than
those in men.  As for  their covering or inclosure,
it differs extremely ; for as men's are wrapped in
divers tunicles, by reason they are extremely pen-
dulous, and subject to divers injuries,  unless so
fenced by nature; so women's stones, being inter-
nal, and less subject to casualty, are covered with
one tunicle or membrane, which, though it closely
cleave to them, yet they are likewise half covered
with the peritoneum.
   The  ejaculatory vessels are two obscure pas-
sages, one on each side, nothing differing from the
spermatic veins in substance.  They rise in 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 impassable,
 adhering to the womb, as the colon does to  the
 blind gut, and winding halfway about; and though
 the testicles are  remote from them,  and  touch
 them not, yet they  are tied to them by certain
 membranes, resembling the wing of a bat, through, 
66
Aristotle's master-piece.
 which certain veins and arteries passing from the
 end of the testicles, may be termed here to have
 their passage proceeding from  the corner of the
 womb to the testicles, and  are  accounted proper
 ligaments, by which the  testicles and womb are
 united and strongly knit together: and these liga-
 ments in women are the cremasters in  men, of
 which I shall speak more largely, when I  come to
 describe  the masculine parts conducing  to gen-
eration.
                  CHAP. XV.

 A Description of the Use and Action of several Parts in Wo-
             men, appointed in Generation.

   The externals,  commonly called the pudenda,
 are designed to cover the great orifice, and to re-
 ceive the penis or yard in the act of coition, and
 give passage to the birth and urine.   The use of
 the wings and knobs, like  myrtle-berries,  are for
 the security of the internal parts, shutting the ori-
 fice and neck of the bladder, and by their swelling
 up, to  cause titilation and  delight  in  those parts,
 and also to obstruct the involuntary passage of the
 urine.
   The action of the clytoris in women is like that
 of the  penis in man, viz. the erection ; and its outer
 end is  like the  glands of the  penis, and has the
 same name.  And as the  glands of man are the
 seat of the greatest pleasure in conception, so is
 this in the 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 erect-
ed and made strait for the passage of the penis in- 
Aristotle's master-pieck.          67
to the womb: 2dly, whilst the passage is repleted
with spirit and  vital blood, it becomes more strait
for embracing the penis; and  as  for the conven-
iency of erection, it is twofold:  first,  because if
the neck of the womb was not erected, the  yard
could have no convenient passage to the womb:
secondly, it hinders any hurt or damage that might
ensue through the violent concussion of the  yard
during the time of copulation.
   As for the veins that pass through the neck of
the womb, their use is to replenish it with  blood
and spirit, that still, as the moisture consumes by
the heat contracted in copulation, it may by these
vessels be renewed  $ but their chief business is to
convey nutriment to the  womb.
   The womb has many properties attributed to it:
as, first retention 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 ope-
rates in sending forth the birth, when the time of
its remaining there is expired, dilating  itself in  a
wonderful manner,  and so aptly removed from the
senses, that nothing of injury can proceed from
thence, retaining 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  applying of which will be
given in the second book.
   The use of the preparing vessels is this; the ar-
teries convey the blood to the testicles ; part where-
of is put in the nourishment of them, and the pro-
duction of these little  bladders (in all  things re-
sembling  eggs,) through which the vast preparen-
tia run, and  are obliterated in them :  and as for
the veins, their office is to bring  back what  blood
remains from the use  aforesaid.   The  vessels of 
68
Aristotle's master-piece.
 this kind are much shorter in women than in men,
 by reason of their nearness to the stones ; which
 defects are yet made good by the many intricate
 windings to which those vessels are subject;  for,
 in the middle way they divide themselves into
 two branches, though different in  magnitude, for
 one being greater than the other passes  to  the
 stones.
   The stones in women are very useful, for where
 they are defective, generation-work is at an end.
 For although those bladders which are on their out-
 ward superfiees contain nothing of seed,, as the fol-
 lowers of Galen and Hippocrates did  erroneously
 imagine, yet they contain several eggs, generally
 twenty in each testicle  $ one of which  being  im-
 pregnated by the spirtuous part of the man's seed
 in the act of coition, descends through the ova-
 ducts into the womb, and from hence, in process
^of time, becomes a living child.
                 CHAP. XVI.

         Of the Organs of Generation in Mam.

  Having given you a description of the organs
of generation in women, with the anatomy of the
fabric of the womb, I  shall now, to complete the
first part of this  treatise, describe the organs of
generation in men, 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 Latin, penis, a pendendo,
because it hangs without the belly,) is an organi-
cal  part, which consists of skin,  tendons, veins,
arteries, sinews,  and great ligaments j  and is loner
and round, and on the upper  side  flattish, seated 
Aristotle's kaster-piece.
69
under the os pubis, and ordained by nature partly
for evacuation of urine, and partly  for conveying
the seed into the matrix:  for which end it is full
of small pores, through which the seed passes into
it, through  the  vesicula seminalis, and  also the
neck of the vesicula urinalis, which pours out the
urine when they make water ; besides the common
parts, viz, the two nervous bodies, the septum, the
urethra, the glands, four muscles, and the vessel.
The nervous  bodies  (so  called) are surrounded
with a thick white pervious membrane,  but their
inmost substance is spongy, consisting chiefly  of
veins,  arteries,  and  nervous fibres, interwoven
together like  a  net.   And when the nerves are
filled with animal spirits, and the arteries with hot
and spirituous blood, then the penis is distended,
and become serect j but when the influx of the spir-
its ceases,  then  the blood and remaining spirits
are absorbed by the veins,  and so the penis' spirits
are limber  and  flaggy.   Below  these   nervous
bodies is the urethra;  and whenever  the  nervous
bodies swell, it swells also.   The muscles of the
penis are  fourj two  shorter,  arising  from the
coxendix, and serving for erection, and for that
reason are called erectores;  two larger,  proceed-
ing from the spinchter of the anus, which serve to
dilate the urethra for evacuation of seed, and are
called dilatantes, or winding.  At the end of the
penis are the glands, covered with  a very thin
membrane,  by means  of which, and  its nervous
substance, it becomes most  exquisitely  sensible,
and is the principal seat of pleasure in copulation.
The outermost  covering  of the glands is called
pr»putium, a percutiendo, from being cut off",  it
being that which the Jews cut off in circumcision,
and it is tied by the lower parts of it to the glands
of the fcetus.  The penis is also stocked with veins,
arteries, and nerves. 
70
Aristotle's master-piece.
   The testiculi, or stones, (so called, oecause tes-
 tifying one  to  be a man,)  elaborate  the  blood
 brought to them by the spermatic arteries into
 seed.  They have coats of two sorts, proper and
 common ; the common are two, and  invest both
 the testes. The outermost of the common coats con-
 sists of the cuticula, or true skin, and is called the
 scrotum, hanging out of the abdomen like a purse;
 the innermost is  the  membrana  carnosa.  The
 proper coats  are also two, the outer called cliotro-
 des or virginales,- the inner  albugidia; into the
 outer is  inserted the cremaster.-  To- the upper
 part of the testes are fixed  the  epidimydes, or
 prostoatse ; from whence ariseth the vasa deferen-
 tia, or ejaculatoria ; which, when they come near
 the neck of the bladder, deposit the seed unto the
 vesicular seminales ; these vesiculee seminales are
 two, each like a bunch of grapesy and emit the
 seed into the  urethra in the aet of copulation.
 Near them are the prostratse, about the bigness of
 a walnut  and joined to the neck of the bladder.
Authors do not agree about the use of them> but
 most are of opinion that they afford an oily,, sloppy,
 and fat humour, to besmear the urethra, 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 made,
 are arterre  spermaticaR, and are also two.  The
veins which carry out the remaining blood are two,
 and have the name vense spermaticae. 
            Aristotle's master-pieoe.           71


                 CHAP.  XVII.

A word of Advice to both Sexes, being several Directions re-
            specting the Act of Copulation.

   Since nature has implanted in  every creature a
mutual desire of copulation, for the increase  and
propagation  of its kind,  and more especially in
man, the lord of the creation and master-piece of
nature, xhat so. noble a piece of divine  workman-
ship might not perish, something ought to  be  said
concerning it, it being the  foundation of all  that
we have hitherto been treating  of, since without
copulation there can  be  no generation.  Seeing
therefore so much, depends  upon  it, I have thought
it necessary, before 1  conclude the first book, to
give such directions to both sexes, for the  per-
formance 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.  First, then, when a mar-
ried couple, from a desire of having children, are
about to make use of those means that nature or-
dained to that purpose,, it would be very proper to
cherish the body with generous restoratives,  that
so it may be brisk and vigorous; and if  their im-
aginations were charmed with sweet and  melodi-
ous  airs, and care and thought of business drown-
ed in a glass of rosy wine,  that their spirits  may
be raised to  the highest pitch of ardour and  joy,
it would not be amiss ; for any  thing of sadness,
trouble, and sorrow, are  enemies to the delights
of Venus.   And if, at  any such  times of  coition,
there should be conception, it would have a malev-
olent effect  upon the child.   But though generous
restoratives may be used  for invigorating nature, 
72           Aristotle's master-piece.

yet all excess is to be carefully avoided, for it will
allay the briskness of the spirits,, and render them
dull and languid, and also hinder digestion, and
so must needs be an enemy to copulation ; for it
is food moderately taken, and  well digested,  that
creates good spirits, and enables a man with vigour
and activity  to perform the  dictates of nature.
It is also highly necessary that in their mutual em-
braces they meet each other with an equal ardour;
for  if the spirits flag on either part, they will  fall
short of what nature  requires, and the  women
must either miss of conception,, or else the chil-
dren prove weak i» their  bodies, or defective in
their understanding: and  therefore  I do advise
them, before  they begin their  conjugal embraces,
to invigorate their mutual desires, and make their
flames burn with a fierce ardour by those endear-
ing ways that  love  can better teach than I can
write.
  And when  they have done what nature requires
a man  must have a  care he does not  part too soon
from the embraces of his wife,, lest some sudden
interposing cold should strike  into the womb, and
occasion a  miscarriage, and thereby deprive them
of the fruit of their fobour.
  And when, after  some small  convenient  time,
the man  hath withdrawn  himself, let the women
gently  betake herself to rest with  all imaginable
serenity  and  composure of mind, free from all
anxious and disturbing thoughts, or any other kind
of perturbation whatsoever.  And let her, as much
as she  can, forbear turning herself from that  side
on which she first reposed.   And by all means
let her avoid  coughing and sneezing,  which  by
its  violent  concussion on  the body  is  a great
enemy to conception,  if it happen  soon  after  the
act of coition. 
BOOK  II.
A PRIVATE LOOKING-GLASS

         FOR THE FEMALE  SEX.

(TREATING OE SEVERAL MALADIES INCIDENT TO THE WOMR,
    WITH PROPER REMEDIES FOR THE CURE OF EACH.
                 CHAP. I.

             Of4he Womb «i -general.

  Although in the first book I have spoken some-
thing of the womb, yet being  in the second book
to treat more particularly thereof, and of the va-
rious distempers and maladies it is subjected to,l
shall not think it tautology to give you, by way of
instruction, a general description both of  its sit-
uation and extent, but rather  think it can by no
means be omitted, especially  since in it I am to
speak of the quality  of the menstrous blood.
  First, touching the womb.  By the Grecians it
is called metra, the mother ; adelphos, says Pris-
cian, because it makes us all brothers.
  It is placed in the hypogastrium, or lower part
of the body, in the cavity called pelvis, having the
strait gut on one side, to keep it  from  the other
side of the backbone, and the bladder on the other
side to defend  it from blows.  The form or figure
of it is like a virile member, only thus described—
the manhood is outwad and womanhood inward.
  It is divided into the neck and the body.  The
                     7 
 74          Aristotle's master-piece.

 neck consists of a hard  fleshy substance,  much
 like cartilage, at the end whereof there  is a  mem-
 brane transversely placed, called hymen or engion.
 Near to the neck there is a prominent pinnacle,
 which is called by Mountinus the door of the womb
 because it preserves the matrix from cold and dust;
 by the Grecians it is called clytoris ; by the Latins
 proeputium muliebre, because the  Jewish women
 did abuse those  parts to their own mutual  lusts,
 as Paul speaks, Rom. i. 26.
   The body of the womb is that wherein the child
 is conceived ; and this is not altogether round, but
 dilates itself into two angles, the outward part of
 it nervous and full of sinews, which are the cause
 of its motion, but inwardly it is fleshy.  In the
 cavity of the womb there are two cells or recep-
 tacles for human  seed, divided by a  line running
 through the midst of it.   In the right side of the
 cavity,  by  the reason  of the heat of  the  liver,
 males are conceived ; in the left side, by the cold-
 ness of  the  spleen, females are  begotten.   Most
of our  moderns  hold  the above as an infallible
truth, yet Hippocrates holds it but in general:
 " For in whom  (saith  he) the  spermatic vessels
on the right side come from the  reins, and the
 spermatic vessels on the left side from the hollow
vein, in  them males are conceived in the left side,
and females in the right."  Well, therefore, may
T conclude with the saying of Empedocles, " Such
 sometimes is the power of the seed, that the mate
 may be  conceived in  the left side, as well as in
 the right."  In the bottom of the cavity, there are
 little  holes called the cotiledones,  which are the
ends  of certain  veins  and arteries,  serving in
breeding women to convey substance to  the child,
 which is received by the  umbilical veins;  and
others to carry their courses into the matrix.
   Now, touching the menstruals, they are defined 
Aristotle's master-piece.
75
to be a monthly flux of excrementition and unpro-
fitable blood, which is to be understood of thesu-
perplus or redundance of it.   For it is an excre-
ment in quality,  its quantity being pure and in-
corrupt, like unto the blood in the veins.
  And that the menstrous blood is pure and sub-
tle of itself,  all in one quality with that in the veins
is proved two ways: first, from the final cause of
the blood, which is the propagation and conversa-
tion of mankind, that man might  be conceived ;
and being begotten., he might  be  comforted and
preserved both in the womb and out of the womb.
And all will grant it for a truth, that a child, when
in the matrix, is nourished with the blood.  And
it is true, that being out of the womb, it  is still
nourished with the same; for the milk  is nothing
but the menstrous blood made white in the breast.
Secondly, it is proved  to be true,  from the gen-
eration of it, it being the superfluity of the last
aliment of the fleshy parts.
  The natural end of man and woman's being  is
to propagate; and this injunction was imposed
upon them  by God at their  first creation, and
again after the deluge.  Now, in the  act of con-
ception, there must be an agent and patient; for
if they be both every way of one constitution, they
cannot propagate :  man therefore is hot and dry,
woman cold and moist; he is  the agent, she  the
patient or weaker  vessel, that  she  should be sub-
ject to the office of the man.   It is necessary the
woman should be of a  cold constitution, because
in her is required a redundancy of nature for  the
infant depending on her;  for otherwise,  if there
were not a superplus of nourishment for the child,
more than  is convenient for  the mother, then
would the infant detract and weaken  the  princi-
pal parts of the mother, and like unto  the  viper,
the generation of the infant would be the destruc-
tion of the parent. 
76
ARISTOTLE'S MASTER-PIECE.
  The monthly purgations continue from the 15th
year to the 46th or 50th y yet often there happens
a suppression, which is either natural or morbifi-
cal; they are naturally  suppressed in breeding
women, and such as give suck.   The morbifical
suppression  falls  now into  our method to be
spoken of.
                  CHAP. II.

           Of the Retention of the Courser*

  The suppression of the terms is an interception
of that accustomed  evacuation of blood which
every month should come from the matrix, pro-
ceeding from the instrument or matter vitiated-
The part affected is the womb, and that of itself
or by consent.
  Cause-  The cause of this suppression is either
external or internal.  The external cause may be
heat, or dryness of the air, immoderate watching,
great labour, vehement motion,  &c. whereby the
matter is so consumed and the body so exhausted,
that there is not a surplus remaining to be expel-
led, as is recorded of the Amazons, who,.being ac-
tive and always in motion, had their fluxions 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 binding up the pas-
sages, that it cannot  flow forth.
  The  internal  cause is either instrumental or
material, in the womb or in the  blood.
  In the womb rt may be divers ways ; by  impos-
thumes, humours, ulcers, by the narrowness of
the veins and passages, or by  the omentum in
fat bodies, pressing the  neck of the matrix ; bitf 
            aristotle's master-piece.          77

then they must have hernia, zirthillis, for in man-
kind the kell reacheth not so  low ; by overmuch
cold or heat, the one vitiating the action, the other
consuming the  matter by  an  evil composition of
the uterine parts, by the neck of the womb being
turned aside, and sometimes,  though rarely, by a
membrane  or  excrescence of the  flesh growing
about the mouth or neck of the womb. The blood
may be in fault two ways, in  quantity or quality :
in quantity, when it is so consumed that  there is
not a superplus left, as in viragos, or virile women,
who, through their  heat and  strength of nature,
digest and consume all in their last nourishment;
as Hippocrates writes of Prethusa, who  being ex-
aited by her husband Pathea,  her terms were sup-
pressed, ner voice changed, and she had a beard,
with the countenance of a man. But these I judge
rather 10 be Tynopagi,  or women-eaters, than wo-
men-breeders,  because they consume one of the
principles of generation,  which gives a being to
the world, viz. the menstrous blood.  The blood
likewise may be consumed, and consequently the
terms staid, by bleeding at the nose,  by a flux of
the hemorrhoids, by a dysentery commonly called
the bloody flux, by many  other evacuations,  and
by  continual and chronical diseases.  Secondly.
The matter may be vicious in quality; and sup-
pose it to be sanguinous,  phlegmatical, bilious or
melancholic ; every one of these, if they offend in
grossness, will cause an obstruction in the veins.
  Signs.  Signs manifesting the disease, are pains
in the head, neck, back, and  loins; weariness of
the whole body, (but especially of the  hips  and
legs, by reason of a confinity which the matrix
have with  these parts ;) trembling of the heart.
Particular signs are these; If the suppression pro-
ceed from cold, she is heavy, sluggish, of a pale
colour,  and has a slow pulse; Venus's combats
                      7* 
78           Aristotle's master-piece.

are neglected, the urine cruddles, the  blood be-
comes waterish and much in quantity, and the ex-
crements of the guts usually are retained.   If of
heat,  the signs are contrary to those now recited.
If the retention be natural, and come of conception,
this may be'known by drinking of hydromel, that
isr water and  honey, after supper, going to bed,
by the effect which it worketh;  for  if,  after the
taken of it, she feels a beating pain upon the navel,
and the lower part of the belly, it is a  sign  she
hath  conceived, and that the suppression is na-
tural ; if not,  then it  is vicious, and ought medi-
cinally to be taken away.
  Prognostics. With the evil quality of the womb,
the whole body stands charged, but especially the
heart, the liver, and  the brain ; and  betwixt the
womb and these three principal parts there is a
singular concert: First, the womb  communicates
to ibe heart by  the mediation of those arteries
which come from the aorta. Hence, the terms
being suppressed, will ensuefaintings, swoonings,
intermission of pulse, cessation of breath. Second-
ly, it  communicates to the liver by the  veins de-
rived  from thehollow vein.  Hence will follow ob-
structions, cahexics, jaundice, dropsies,  hardness
of spleen.   Thirdly,, it communicates  to the brain
by the nerves  and membrane of the back: hence
will arise epilepsies, frenzies, melancholy passion,
pain in the after parts of the head, fearfulness ana
inability of speaking.  Well, therefore, may I con-
clude with Hippocrates, if the months be suppress-
ed, many dangerous diseases will  follow.
  Cure.  In the cure of this, and of all the other
following effects,  I will  observe the order.   The
cure shall be taken from chirurgical, pharmaceu-
tical,  and diuretics! means.  This  suppression is
a plethoric effect, and  must be  taken  away  by
evacuation; and therefore we will first be^in with 
            Aristotle's master-piece.          79

phlebotomy.  In the midst of the menstrual pe-
riod open the liver vein; and for the reservation
of the  humour, two days  before the evacuation,
open the saphena in both feet; if the repletion be
not great, apply cupping-glasses to the legs and
thighs, although there should  be no  hopes to re-
move the suppresion.  As  in some the cotiledones
are so closed up, that nothing but copulation will
open them ; yet it will be convenient, as much as
may be, to ease nature of her burden, by opening
the hemorrhoid veins with a  leech.  After phle-
botomy, let  the humours  be prepared and made
flexible with syrup of  stychas  calamint,  betony.
hyssop, mugwort, horehound,  fumitary,  maiden
hair.   Bathe with camomile, pennyroyal,  savia,
bay leaves, juniper berries, rue, marjoram,  fever-
few.  Take of the leaves of nep, maiden hair, suc-
cory, and betony, of each  a handful, make a de-
coction ; take  thereof three ounces.  Syrup of
maiden hair, mugwort, and succory ; mix of each
half an ounce.  After she comes out of the bath,
let her drink it off.  Purge with pill de  agarice,
fleybang, corb, feria?.   Galen,  in this case, com-
mends pilulas de caberica, coloquintida;  for,  as
they are proper to purge the. humour offending,
so also they do open the  passage  of the womb,
and  strengthen the faculity by their aromatical
quality.
   If the stomach be overcharged, let her take a
vomit, yet such a one  as may work both ways,
lest  working only upward, it  should  too much
turn back the humour.  Take trochisks of agaric
two drachms, infuse them in two ounces of oxy-
mel, in which dissolve of  the electuary dissarum
one scruple and a half, bendic. laxit. half an ounce.
Take this after the manner of a purge.
   After the humour hath been  purged, proceed to
 more proper and forcible  remedies.   Take of tro- 
80          Aristotle's master-piece.

chisk of myrrh one drachm and a half; parsley
seed, castor rinds, or cassia, of each one scruple,
and of the extract of mugwort one scruple and  a
half; of musk ten grains, with the juice of small-
age ; make twelve pills ;  take six every morning
or after supper going to bed.  Take of cinnamon
half an ounce, smirutium, or rogos, valerin  aris-
tolochia, of each two  drachms:  roots of astru-
mone, drachm saffron, of each two scruples ; spe«.
diambia, two drachms;  trochisk of myrrh, four
scruples;  tartari vitriolari,  two scruples ; make
half into a powder; with mugwort water and su-
gar a sufficient quantity,  make lozenges, take one
drachm of them every morning; or mingle ono
drachm of the powder with one drachm of sugar,
and take it in white wine. Take of prepared steel,
spec  hair, of each  two drachms;  borax,  spec,  of
myrrh, of  each one scruple, with the juice of sa-
vine ; make it up into  eighty-eight lozenges, and
take three every other day before dinner.  Take
of castor  one  scruple,  wild carrot seed half  a
drachm, with syrup of  mugwort, and  make four
pills ; take them  in a morning fasting,  and so for
three days together, before the wonted time of the
purgation.  Take of agaric,  aristolochia, juice  of
horehound, of each five drachms ; rhubarb, spike-
nard, anniseed,  gaidanum,  assafoetida, mallow
root, gentian, of the three peppers, lacoace, of each
six drachms ; with honey make an electuary, take
of it three drachms for  a dose.  In phle^matio
bodies nothing can be better given than  the decoc-
tion of the wood of guaicum, with a little disclaim
taken in the morning  fasting, and so  for twelve
days together, without provoking of sweat.
   Adminster to the lower parts by suffumioations
pessaries,  unctions, injections:  make  suffumio-a-
tions of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, bay berries
mugwort,  galbanum,  molanthium,  amber  &c' 
            Aristotle's master-piece.          81

Make pessaries of figs, and the leaves of mercury
bruised, and rolled up with lint.  If you desire a
Btronger, make one of myrrh, jadulium, apopanax,
amrnoniacum,  galbanum,  sagepanum, mithridate,
agaric, coloquintida, &c.  Make injections of the
decoction of origane, mugwort, mercury,  betony,
and eggs ; inject it into the womb by an instrument
tit for that purpose.  Take of oil of almonds, lilies,
capers, camomile, of each half an ounce ; laudani,
oil of myrrh, of each two  drachms; with wax
make and unguent, with which let the place be
anointed ; make infusions of fenugreek, cammomile
melilot, dill,  marjoram,  pennyroyal, feverfew,
juniper berries, and calamint; but  if the suppres-
sion comes by a defect of matter, then ought not
the courses to be provoked until  the spirits be
animated, and the blood again increased; or, if
by proper effects  of the womb, as dropsies, in-
flammations, &c. then must particular care be used;
the which I will not insist  upon here, but speak
of them as they lie in order.
   If the retention comes from repletion, or fulness,
if the air  be hot and dry, use moderate  exercise
before meals,  and  your meat  and  drink  atteuna-
ting; use with your meat garden  savory,  thyme,
origane, and cyche peason : if from emptiness or
defect of matter, if the air  be moist and  modera-
tely hot,  shun exercise  and watching; let your
meat be nourishing and of  light digestion, as raw
eggs,  lamb,  chickens,  almonds,  milk, and the
like. 
82
Aristotle's  master-piece.
                  CHAP.  III.

          Of the Overflowing of the Courses.

  The learned say, that by comparing 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 of the month is defined  to
be a sanguinous excrement, proceeding from the
womb,  exceeding both in  quantity  and time.
First, it is said to  be sanguinous; the  matter of
the flux being only blood, wherein it  differs from
that which is commonly called the false courses,
or the whites, of which  I  shall speak  hereafter.
Secondly,  it is said to proceed  from the  womb;
for there are two ways from which the blood flows
forth ; the one is by the internal veins of the body
of  the  womb,—and this is properly  called the
monthly flux ; the other is by those  veins which
are terminated in  the neck of the matrix,—and by
Aetius this is called the hemorrhoids  of the womb.
Lastly,  it is'said to exceed  both in quantity and
time.  In  quantity, saith Hippocrates, when  they
flow about eighteen ounces  ; in  time, when  they
flow above three days : but we take this for a cer-
tain.character of their inordinate flowing when
the faculties of the body are  thereby weakened.
In bodies  abounding in  gross humours, this im-
moderate flux sometimes unburdens nature of her
load, and  ought not to be staid  without the coun-
sel of a physician.
   Cause.   The cause of this affair is internal  or
external.   The internal cause is threefold  ; in the
matter, instrument, or faculty.   The   matter
which is the blood, may be  vicious two  ways • 
Aristotle's master-piece.          83
first, by the heat of constitution, climate, or  sea-
son, heating the blood, whereby the passages are
dilated, and the faculty weakened,  that it cannot
retain the blood.   Secondly, by falls,  blows,  vio-
lent motion, breaking of the veins, &c.   The ex-
ternal cause may be calidity  of  the  air, lifting,
carrying of heavy burdens, unnatural child-birth,
&c.
  Signs.   In this inordinate flux, the appetite  is
decayed, the  conception is depraved,  and all the
actions weakened ; the feet are swelled, the colour
of the face is changed, and a general feebleness
possesseth the whole body.  IF the flux comes by
the  breaking, of a vein,  the  body is sometimes
cold, the blood flows forth in heaps, and  that sud-
denly, with great pain.  If it comes through heat,
the orifice of the vein being dilated, then there is
little or no pain, yet the blood flows faster then it
doth in an erosion, and not so fast as it doth  in a
rupture.   If  by erosion, or sharpness of blood, she
feels a  great  heat scalding the passage;  it  differs
from the other two, in that it  flows not so sudden-
ly, nor so  copiously as they do.  If by weakness
of  the  womb, she  abhorreth 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  by the  colour.
If it be choleric, it will be yellow;  if melancholy,
black ; if phlegmatic, waterish and whitish.
   Prognostics.   If with the flux be joined a con-
vulsion, it is  dangerous,  because it intimates the
more noble parts are vitiated : and a convulsion
caused by emptiness  is  deadly.   If it  continues
long, it will  be cured with great difficulty : for it
was one of the miracles which our Saviour, Christ,
wrought, to  cure this disease, when it had contin-
ued twelve years.
   To conclude, if the flux be inordinate, many dis- 
84           Aristotle's master-piece.
eases will ensue, and without remedy; the blood,
together with the native heat, being consumed,
either cachetical, hydropical,  or  paralytical dis-
eases will follow.
  Cure.   The cure consisteth in three particulars.
First, in repelling and carrying away the blood;
Secondly, in correcting and taking away the flux-
ibility of the matter:  Thirdly, in incorporating
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  altogether,  but
at several times, for  thereby the  spirits  are less
weakened, and the refraction so much the greater.
  Apply cupping-glasses to the breasts, and al-
so the liver, that the  reversion  may be in  the
fountain.
  To correct the flexibility of the matter, cathar-
tical means, moderated with the astrictories, may
be used.
  If it be caused by erosion or sharpness of blood
consider whether the erosion be by salt  phlegm,
or adust choler.   If by salt  phlegm, prepare with
syrup of violets, wormwood, roses, citron-pill suc-
cory, &c.  Then mate this purgation following:
mirobalans,  chebol, half an ounce;  trochisks of
agaric, one drachm ;  with plantain-water make  a
decoction; add  thereto fir,  roast,  and lax, three
ounces, and make a potion.
  If by adust choler,  prepare the body with syrup
of roses, myrtles, sorrel, and purslain, mixed with
water of plantain, knot-grass, and endive.  Then
purge with this portion ; take rind of mirobalans
and rhubarb of  each one drachm, cinnamon  fif-
teen grains; infuse them one night in endive-wa-
ter ; add to  the straining, pulp of tamarind, cassia
of each half an ounce, syrup of roses an ounce;
make a potion.   If the blood he waterish or  un- 
            Aristotle's master-piece.          85

concocted, as it is in hydropical bodies, and flows
forth by reason of the tennity or thinness, to draw
off the water it will be profitable to  purge with
agaric, elaterium, coloquintida:  sweating is pro-
per in this case, for thereby the  matter offending
is taken away, and  the  motion of the blood car-
ried to the outward parts.   To procure sweat, use
Gardus-water, with  mithridate, or the decoction of
guaiacum, and  sarsaparilla.  The gum of guaia-
cum also doth greatly provoke sweat; pills of sar-
saparilla, taken  every night going  to bed,  are
worthily  commended.  If  the  blood flows forth
through the opening or breaking of a vein, with-
out any evil quality of itself, then ought only cor-
roboratives to be applied ; which is the last  thing
to be done in this inordinate flux.
   Take of bole ammoniac  one scruple,  London
treacle one drachm, old conserve of roses half an
ounce, with syrup, of myrtle make an electuary :
or, if the flux hath continued long, take of mastic
two drachms ;  choani troch de caraba, of each one
 drachm ; balustium, one scruple; make a powder:
—with syrup of quinces make  it into pills ; take
one always before meals.   Take lapidis, haematia,
triti, of each two scruples ; spederdum, alantalia,
one ounce ; trech decarabede, scorria, ferri, coral,
frankincense, of each one  scruple; fine bole  one
 scruple ;  beat these to fine powder, and with sugar
 and plantain-water make lozenges.   Asses' dung
 is approved of, whether taken inwardly with syrup
 of quinces,  or  outwardly  with  steeled-water.
 Galen, by conveying the juice of it through a me-
 trenchita in the womb four days together, cured
 this  immoderate flux,  which no ways else could
 be  restrained.   Going to  bed, let her take  one
 scruple and a half of pilon in water: make a suffu-
 migation for the matrix of mastic, frankincense,
 burnt  frogs, not forgetting the hoof of a mule.
                        8 
86           Aristotle's master-piece.

Take the juice of knotgrass, comfrey, and quinces,
of each one ounce, camphire one drachm; dip silk
or cotton therein, and apply it to the place.  Take
of oil of mastic, myrtles, quinces, of  each half an
ounce; fine bole,  troch,  decarda,  of  each one
drachm; sanguis draconis a sufficient quantity;
make an unguent, and apply it before and behind,
Take of plantain, shepherd's purse, red rose leaves,
of  each one ounce and a half;  dried  mint one
ounce ; bean-meal three ounces :—boil all these in
plantain-water, and make of it two plasters ; apply
one  before  and  behind.  If  the blood flow from
those veins which are terminated in the neck of
the matrix,  then it is not called the overflowingof
the terms, but the hemorrhoids of the womb; yet
the same cure will serve both, only the instrument-
al cure will a little differ : for, in the uterine he-
morrhoids,  the  ends of the  veins hang over like
teats or  brushes,  which must be taken away by
incision, and then the veins closed up with aloes,
fine bole, burnt alum, troach de terrs fiall; myrrh,
mastic, with the juice of comfrey and knotgrass,
laid plasterways thereto.
  The air must  be cold and  dry.   All motion of
the body must  be  forbidden.  Let  her meat be
pleasant, partridge, mountain-birds,  coneys, calf-
feet, &c.  And let her beer be mixed with juice
of pomegranates and quinces.
                  CHAP. IV.

            Of the Weeping of the Womb.

  The weeping of the womb is a flux of blood, ud
natural, coming from thence by drops, after tto
manner of tears, causing violent pains in the sami 
            Aristotle's master-piece.          87

keeping neither period nor time.   By some it is
referred  unto  the immoderate evacuation of the
courses, yet they are distinguished in the quantity
and manner of overflowing, in that they flow co-
piously and free; this is continual, though by
little and little, and that with great pain and diffi-
culty; wherefore  it is  likened unto the  stran-
guary.
  The cause is in the  faculty, instrument, or mat-
ter : in the  faculty, by being  enfeebled that it
cannot expel the  blood;  and the blood resting
there, makes that  part of the womb grow hard,
and stretcheth the vessels; from whence proceeds
the pain of the womb.   In the instrument by the,
narrowness  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 so
gross and thick that  it cannot flow forth  as it
ought to  do, but by drops.  The  signs will best
appear by  the  relation  of the patient: hereupon
will issue pains in the head,  stomach, and back,
with inflammations, suffocations, and excoriations
of the matrix.   If the strength of the patient will
permit, first open  a vein in the arm, rub the upper
parts, and let her arm be corded, that the force of
the blood may be carried backward: then apply
such things as may laxate and molify the strength-
ening of the womb, and assuage the sharpness of
the blood,  as  cataplasms  made of bran,  linseed,
fenugreek,   melilot, mallows, mercury, and arti-
plex.   If the blood be  vicious and gross, add there-
to mugwort, calamint, dictam, and betony ; and
let her take of Venice  treacle the quantity of a
nutmeg, and the  syrup  of mugwort every  morn-
ing ; make an  injection  of the decoction of mal-
lows, mercury, linseed, groundsel, mugwort, fenu-
greek, with oil of sweet almonds.
  Sometimes it is caused by  the wind, and then 
88           Aristotle's master-piece.

phlebotomy is to  be omitted,  and in the stead
thereof, take syrup of feverfew one ounce ; honey,
roses, syrup of roses, syrup of  flachus,  of each
half an ounce ; water of calamint, mugwort, beto-
ny, and hyssop, of each one ounce ;-rnake a julep.
If the pain continues, employ this purgation : take
of spec and hiera; one drachm, diacatholicon half
an ounce ; syrup of roses and laxative one ounce;
with the decoction of mugwort and the four cor-
dial flowers make a potion.  If it comes  through
the weakness of the faculty, let that be corrobora-
ted.  If through the grossness and sharpness of
the blood, let the quality of it be altered, as I have
shown in the foregoing chapter.  Lastly,  if the
excrement of the guts be retained, provoke them
by a clyster of the decoction of camomile, betony,
feverfew, mallows, linseed, juniper  berries, cum-
min seed, anniseed, melilot, adding thereto of dia-
catholicon half an ounce; hiera piera, two drachms j
honey  and oil  of  each  one ounce ; salt nitre  a
drachm and  a  half.   The patient  must abstain
from salt, sharp, and windy meats.
                  CHAP. V.

          Of the False Courses, or Whites.

  From the womb  proceed  not only menstrous
blood, but, accidentally,  many  other  excrements,
which  by the ancients are comprehended under
the title of rebus gunakois; which is a distillation
of a variety of corrupt humours through the womb
flowing from  the whole body, or part of the same
keeping neither courses nor colour, but varying in
both.
   Cause.  The cause is either promiscuously in 
            Aristotle's master-piece.          89

the whole body, by a cocochymia, or weakness of
the same, or in some of the parts, as in the liver,
which, by the inability of the sanguificative facul-
ty, causeth a generation of corrupt blood, and then
the matter is reddish; sometimes the  gall being
sluggish in its  office, not drawing away those
choleric superfluities engendered in the liver, the
matter is yellowish ; sometimes in the  spleen, not
deficiating and cleansing  the blood of the dregs
and excrementitious parts; and then  the matter
flowing forth is blackish.   It may also  come from
the catarrh in  the head, or from  any other putri-
fled or corrupted member ; but if the matter of the
flux be white,  the cause is  either in  the stomach
or reins ;  in the stomach  by a phlegmatical and
crude matter there contracted and vitiated, through
grief, melancholy, and other distempers; for, other-
wise, if the  matter  were* only pituitous, crude
phlegm, and no ways corrupt, being  taken  into
the liver,  it might be converted into  blood ; for
phlegm in the ventricle is called nourishment 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 re-
pel 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 overheated, whereby the  sper-
matical matter, by reason of its thinness, flows
forth.   The external causes may be  moistness of
the air, eating corrupt meats, anger, grief, sloth-
fulness, immoderate sleeping, costiveness in the
body.
   The signs are, extenuation of  the  body,  short-
ness and stinking of the breath, loathing of meat,
pain in the head, swellings of the eyes and feet, and
melancholy ; humidity flows from the womb of di- 
90
Aristotle's  master-piece.
vers colours, as red, black, green, yellow, and
white.  It differs from the flowing and overflow-
ing of the courses, in that it keeps no certain pe-
riod, and is of many colours, all of which do gen-
erate from blood.
  Prognostic.   If the flux be phlegmatical, it will
continue long and be difficult to cure, yet if vomit-
ing or diarrhea happeneth, it diverts the humour
and cures the disease.   If it be choleric, it is not
so permanent, yet more perilous, for it will cause
a cliff in the neck  of the womb,  and  sometimes
make an excoriation of the matrix ; if melancholic
it must  be dangerous and contumacious.  Yet the
flux of the hemorrhoids administer cure.
  If the matter flowing forth be reddish,  open  a
vein in the arm; if not, apply ligatures to the arms
and shoulders.  Galen glories of himself,  how he
cured the wife of Brutus, labouring of this disease
by rubbing the  upper parts with crude honey.
  If it be caused by a distillation  from the  brain,
take syrup  of betony,  stochas,  and marjoram;
purge with pillcoen, fine quibus de agrico ; make
nasalia of the juice of sage, hyssop, betony, nigella
with one drop of oil of elect, dianth, aromat. rosat
diambrae, diamosci dulcis, of each one  drachm,
nutmeg half a drachm ; with  sugar and  betony
water make lozenges, to be taken every morning
and evening; Auri Alexandria, half a  drachm at
night  going to bed.   If these things help not, use
the suffumigation  and plaster, as they are  pre-
scribed.                              *
  If it proceed  from crudities in the stomach, or
from a cold distempered liver, take every morning
of the decoction of lignum sanctum ; purge with
pill de agrico, de hermodact, de hiera, diacolinthio
fsetid.  agrigatio: take  elect,  aromat.  roses  two
drachms ; citron peel dried, nutmeg, long pepper
of each one scruple; diaglanga one drachm j  fan- 
Aristotle's master-piece.
91
tali, alb. lign. aloes, of each half a scruple; sugar
six ounces, with mint-water ;  and make lozenges
of it: take of them before  meals.   If, with the
frigidity of the liver,  there be joined a repletion
of the stomach, purging by vomit is commendable ;
for which three drachms of the electuary diasatu.
Galen allows of  diuretical means, as  aosum pe-
trofolmah.
   If the matter of the flux  be choleric, prepare
the humour with syrup  of roses,  violets,  endive,
succory ; purge with mirobalans, manna, rhubarb,
cassia.  Take of rhubarb two  drachms, anniseed
one drachm, cinnamon a scruple and a half; in-
fuse them in six ounces  of prune broth, add of the
straining  of  manna one ounce,  and take in the
morning according to art.   Take  specierum, dia-
tonlantoe, diacorant, prig, diarthod,  abbaris, dy-
acydomes, of each one drachm, sugar four ounces
with plantain water ; make lozenges.   If the clys-
ter of the gall be sluggish, and do not stir up the
faculty of the. gut,  give  hot clysters of  the decoc-
tion of the four  mollifying herbs with honey of
roses and aloes.
   If the flux be melancholic, prepare with syrup
of maiden-hair,  epithymium, polipoly,  borrage,
buglos, fumitary, harts-tongue, and syrupusbisan-
tius, which must be made without vinegar, other-
wise it will rather animate the disease than nature:
or melancholy by the use of vinegar is increased,
and both by Hippocrates,  Silvius, and Avenzoar,
it is disallowed of as an enemy to the womb, and
therefore not to be  used  inwardly in all uterine dis-
eases. Purgers of melancholy are pilulae sumarire,
pilula? lud de lapina, lazuli diosena, and confectio
hamec.   Take of  stamped prunes  two ounces;
sen. one drachm ;  epithimium, polibody, fumitary
of each  a  drachm and a half;  sour dates, one
ounce ; with endive water, make a decoction j take 
 92           Aristotle's master-piece.

 of it four ounces, add unto it confections,  hame-
 sech three drachms, manna  three drachms.   Or
 take  pil. indie, pil. foetid, agarici, trochisati, of
 each one scruple ; pills  of rhubarb one  scruple;
 lapidis lazuli six  grains; with syrup of epithimi-
 um make pills, and take them once every  week.
 Take elect, laetificants, galen three drachms; dia-
 margariti, calimlone, diamosci, dulcis, conserves
 of borage, violets, buglos, of each a drachm ; cit-
 ron-peel candied, one drachm ; sugar seven ounces:
 with rose-water make lozenges.
  Lastly, Let the womb be cleansed from the cor-
 rupt matter, and then corroborated.  For the puri-
 fying thereof, make injections of the decoction of
 betony, feverfew, spikenard, bistort, mercury, and
 sage, adding  thereto sugar, oil of sweet almonds,
of each two ounces ; pesaries also may be made
of silk or cotton, mollified  in the juice of the afore-
named herbs.
  To corroborate the womb, you  must thus pre-
pare trochisks : take of mugwort, feverfew, myrrh,
amber, mace, nutmeg, storax, lign. aloes, red rosea
of each one ounce; with the mucilage, tragacanth
make trochisks; cast some of them into coals, and
smoke the  womb  therewith,  and  make fomenta-
tions for  the womb with red wine, in which  hath
been decocted mastic, fine  bole,  malustia, and red
roots ; anoint the  matrix with oil of quinces  and
myrtles, and  apply thereto emplastrum,  pro-ma-
trice ; and let her take  diamosdum, dulce, aract.
and celematicum, every morning.
  A dry  diet is commended to be the best, because
 in this effect the body most  commonly abounds
with phlegmatical and crude humours.   For this
cause Hippocrates counsels the patient to  ao to
bed supperless. Let her meat be partridge, pheas-
 ant, and mountain birds, rather  roasted than boil-
ed.   Immoderate sleep is forbidden, moderate  ex-
 ercise is commended.                           . 
            Aristotle's master-piece.          93


                  CHAP. VI.

          Of the Suffocation of the Mother.

  This effect, which, if simply considered, is no-
thing but the cause of an effect, is called  in Eng-
lish, "the suffocation of the mother ;" not because
the womb is strangled, but for that it causeth the
womb to be choked. It is a retraction of the womb
towards the  midriff and the stomach, which  so
presseth and crusheth up the  same,  that the in-
strumental  cause  of respiration, the midriff, is
suffocated, and consenting with the brain, causes
the animating faculty, the efficient cause of res-
piration, also to be intercepted, while the body be-
ing refrigerated, and the action depraved, she falls
to the ground as one dead.
  In those hysterical passions some continue long-
er,  some shorter.   Rabbi Moses writes  of some
who lay in the paroxysm of the fit for  two days.
Rufus 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.  Paroetus writeth of a woman
in Spain, who suddenly fell into an uterine suffo-
cation, and sppeared to men's judement 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 admiration of the spectators.
   To .the end that you may distinguish the living
from the dead, the ancients  prescribe three expe-
riments : the first is, to lay a light feather to the
mouth, and by its motion you  may judge whether 
94
Aristotle's master-piece.
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 ex-
periments are good, yet with  this caution, that
you ought not to depend upon them to 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 so
that she cannot breathe, yet the internal  transpi-
ration of the heat may remain ;  which is not mani-
fest by the motion of the breast  or lungs,  but  lies
occult in the heart and inward arteries: examples
whereof we  have in the fly and  swallow,  who, in
cold winters, to ocular aspect,  seem dead, inani-
mate, and breathe 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-
vocated to the outward parts, they are then again
revived out  of their sleepy extacy.
   Those women, therefore, who seem  to  die sud-
denly, and upon no evident cause, let them not be
committed unto the earth  until  the end  of three
days, lest the living be buried for the dead.
   Cure.   The part affected is the womb,  of which
there is a twofold motion—natural and symptoma-
tical.  The natural motion is, when the womb at-
tracteth the human seed, or excludeth the infant
or secundine.  The symptomatical motion, of which
we are to speak, is a convulsive drawing up of the
womb.
   The cause usually is in the retention of the seed
or the suppression of the menses, causing a reple- 
Aristotle's master-piece.
95
tion of the corrupt humours in the  womb, from
whence proceeds a flatuous refrigeration, causing
a convulsion of the ligaments of the womb.   And
as it may come from humidity or  repletion, being
a convulsion, it may  be  caused by emptiness or
dryness. And lastly, by abortion, or difficult child-
birth.
  Signs.  At the approaching 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 into the throat,  and  then
she falls down as one void both of sense and  mo-
tion ; the mouth of the womb is closed up, and be-
ing touched with the finger, feels  hard.   The pa-
roxysm of the fit being once past, sheopeneth her
eyes, and feeling her stomach  oppressed, she of-
fers to vomit.  And  lest any one should be deceiv-
ed in taking one disease for another, I  will show
how it may be distinguished from those diseases
which have the nearest affinity to it.
  It differs from the apoplexy, by reason it comes
without shrieking out; also in the hysterical pas-
sion the sense of feeling is not altogether destroy-
ed and lost, as  it is in the apoplectic disease: and
it differs from the epilepsies in that  the eyes are
not wrested, neither doth any  spongy froth come
from the mouth ; and that convulsive motion, which
sometimes, and that often, is joined to suffocations
is not universal, as it is in the epilepsies, only this
or that matter is convulsed, and that without any
vehement  agitation.  In the syncope, both  respi-
ration  and pulse are  taken away, the countenance
waxeth pale, and she swoons away suddenly ; but
in the  hysterical passion, commonly, there is both
respiration  and pulse, though it cannot be well
perceived ; her face looks red, and she hatha fore-
warning of her fit.   Yet it is not  denied but that
syncope  may  be  joined  with this suffocation 
96           Aristotle's master-piece.

Lastly, it is  distinguished from  the lethargy by
the pulse, which, in the one is great, and in  the
other little.
  Prognostic.  If the disease hath its being from
the corruption of the seed, it foretels more danger
than if it proceed  from  the suppression of  the
courses, because the seed is concocted, and of a
purer quality than the menstrous blood,  and  the
more pure being corrupted, becomes the more foul
and filthy, as appears in eggs, the purest nourish-
ment, which  vitiated, yield the noisomest savour.
If it be accompanied with a syncope, it shows  na-
ture is but weak, and that the  spirits are almost
exhausted; but if sneezing follows,  it shews  the
heat, which was almost extinct, doth now begin to
return, and  that  nature will  subdue  the dis*
ease.
  Cure.   In  the  cure of this  effect, two things
must be observed :  first, that during the time of
the paroxysm, nature be provoked to expel those
malignant vapours which blind up the senses, that
she may be  recalled out of that sleepy extacy.
Secondly, that in the intermission of the fit, pro-
per medicines may be applied to take  away  the
cause.
  To stir up  nature, fasten cupping-glasses to the
hips and navel, apply ligatures unto the thigh, rub
the extreme parts with salt, vinegar, and mustard:
cause loud clamours and thundering in the ears.
Apply to the  nose assafoetida, castor,  and saga-
paneux, steeped in vinegar: provoke her to sneeze
by blowing up into her nostrils the powder of cas-
tor, white pepper, Spanish pelitory,  and hellebore;
hold under her nose partridge feathers,  hair,  and
burnt  leather, or any other thing having a strong
stinking smell; for evil odours being disagreeable
to nature, the animal spirits do so contest  and
strive against them, that the natural heat is there- 
Aristotle's  master-piece.
97
by restored.  The brain is  sometimes so oppres-
sed, that there is a necessity  for burning the out-
ward skin of the head with hot oil, or with a hot
iron.  Sharp clysters and suppositories  are avail-
able.  Take of sage, calamint, horehound,  fever-
few, marjoram, betony, hyssop, of each one hand-
ful;  anniseed half an ounce ;  coloquintida, white
hellebore, sal gem, of each two drachms ;  boil these
in two pounds of water to the half; add the strain-
ing  oil of  castor  two ounces,  hiera picra two
drachms, and make a clyster  of it; or, take honey
boiled two ounces, cuphorb half a scruple, colo-
quint four grains, with hellebore two grains, salt one
drachm; make a suppository.  Hippocrates writeth
of an hysterical  woman,  who could not  be freed
from the paroxysm but  by  pouring cold water
upon her ; yet this cure is singular, and  ought to
be administered only in heat of summer, when the
sun  is in the tropic of Cancer.
  If it be caused by the retention and corruption
of the  seed, at the instant of the paroxysm,  let the
midwife take oil of lilies, marjoram, and bays, dis-
solving in the same two grains of civit, and  as
much musk ; let her dip her finger therein, and put
it up into the neck of the womb, tickling and rub-
bing the same.
  The fit being oyer,  proceed to  the curing of the
cause. If it arise from the suppression of the men-
ses, look to the  cure in chap. xi.  If from  the reten-
tion of the seed, a good husband  will  administer a
cure ; but those who cannot honestly purchase that
cure, must use  such things as will dry up and  di-
minish the seed, asdiacimina, diacalamiuthes, &c.
Amongst potions, the seed of agnus castus is well
esteemed of, whether taken inwardly, applied out-
wardly, or received as suffumigation; it was held
in great honour amongst the Athenians,  for by  it
they did remain as pure vessels and preserved 
98          Aristotle's master-piece.
their chastity,  by  only  strewing it on the bed
whereon they lay, and hence the name of agnus
castus given  it, as denoting its effects.   Make an
issue on the inside of each leg, a hand breadth be-
low  the knee.  Make  trochisks of agaric,  two
scruples, wild carrot seed, lign aloes, of each half
a scruple ; washed turpentine, three drachms; with
conserve of anthos make a bolus.   Castor is of
excellent use in this case, eight drachms of it ta-
ken in white  wine :  or you  may  make  pills of it
withmithridate, and take them going to bed. Take
of white briony root, dried  and cut after the man-
ner of carrots, one ounce, put in a draught of wine,
placing it by  the fire, and when it is warm, drink
it.  Take myrrh, castor,  and assaftetida, 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 swathing-band.  Make a girdel  of galban-
um for the waist, and also a plaster for the belly,
placing in one part  of it  civet and  musk,  which
must be laid upon the navel. Take pulveris, bene-
dict, trochisk of agaric, of each two drachms; of
mithridate a sufficient quantity; and so make two
pessaries, and it will purge the matrix of wind and
phelgm ; foment the natural part  with  sallad oil,
in which hath been  boiled rue, feverfew, and cam-
omile.  Take of rose leaves a handful, cloves two
scruples ; quilt them in a  little cloth, and boil them
in malmsey the eighth part of an hour, and apply
them to the mouth of the  womb, as hot as may be
endured, but  let not the smell go to her nose.  A
dry diet must still  be observed.  The moderate
use of Venus is  commended.  Let her bread be 
Aristotle's  master-piece.
99
anniseed biscuit,  her  flesh meat rather roasted
than boiled.
                 CHAP. VII.

       Of the descending or falling of the Mother,

  The falling down of the womb is a relaxation
of the  ligatures, whereby  the  matrix is carried
backward, and in some hangs out in  the bigness
of an egg; of this there are two kinds, distinguish-
ed by  a descending and precipitation.   The de-
scending 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 precipi-
tation  is, when the womb, like a purse, is turned
inside  outward, and  hangs betwixt  the thighs 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 of the secundine, rashness  and inexpe-
rience in drawing away the child, violent coughing,
sneezing, falls, blows, and carrying heavy burdens.
The internal cause  in general is overmuch humid-
ity flowing  into these parts, hindering the opera-
tions of the womb, whereby the ligaments  by which
the womb is supported are 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 arse-gut  and bladder oftentimes
are  so crushed that the passage of both the excre-
ments are hindered ; if the urine flows forth white
and thick,  and the  midriff moistened  the loins
are  grieved, the privities pained, and the womb
 sinks down to  the  private parts, or else comes
clean out. 
 100           Aristotle's master-piece.

   Prognostic.  This grief possessing an old wo-
 man, is  cured with great difficulty;  because it
 weakens the faculties of the womb, and therefore,
 though it be reduced into its proper place,  yet
 upon every  little illness or indisposition, it is sub-
 ject to return; and so it also  is with the younger
 sort, if the disease be inveterate.   If it  be  caused
 by a putrefaction of the nerves, it is incurable.
   Cure.   The womb being  naturally placed be-
 tween the strait-gut and the bladder, and now fall-
 en down, ought not to be put up  again, until the
 faculty, both of the gut and of the bladder, be stir-
 red up.  Nature being unloaded of her burden, let
 the woman  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 mollify the swelling with oil
 of lilies and sweet almonds, or with the decoction
 of mallows,  beets,  fenugreek, and linseed;  when
 the  inflammation is dissipated, let  the midwife
 anoint her hand with oil of mastic, and reduce the
 womb into its place.  The matrix being up, the
 situation of  the patient must  be changed, let her
legs be put out at length,  and laid  together ;  six
cupping-glasses to her breasts and navel: boil mug-
wort, feverfew, red roses and comfrey in red wine;
make suffumigation for the  matrix,  and  move
 sweet odours to her nose ; and at  her  coming out
of the bath, give her of  syrup of feverfew one
ounce, with  a drachm  of mithr'idate. Takelaudani
mastic, of each three drachms, make a plaster of
it  for the uavel; then make pessaries of assafceti-
da, saffron, comfrey, and mastic, adding thereto a
little castor
   The practice of Parius in this case was to make
them only of cork, in figure like a little egg, cover-
ing them over with  wax and mastic, dissolved  to-
 gether, fastening them to a thread, and put into
the womb. 
Aristotle's master-piece.          101
  The present danger being now taken away, and
the matrix seated in its natural abode, the remote
cause must be removed. If the body be plethoric,
open a vein ; prepare with syrup of betony, cala-
mint, hyssop, and feverfew. Purge with pil. hierac,
agaric, pil. de colocin.  If the stomach be oppres-
sed with crudities, unburden it by vomiting: su-
dorifical decoctions of lignum sanctum, and  sassa-
fras, taken twenty days together, dry up the su-
perfluous moisture, and consequently suppress the
cause of the disease.
   Let the air be hot  and dry, your diet hot and at-
tenuating ; abstain from dancing, leaping, squeez-
ing,  and from all motion  both of body and  mind;
eat sparingly, drink  little, sleep moderately.
                 CHAP.  VIII.

          Of the Inflammation of the Womb.

  The phlegmon, or inflammation of the matrix,
is a humour possessing the whole womb, accom-
panied with  unnatural heat, by obstruction, and
gathering: together of corrupt blood.
  Caused The cause of this effect is suppression
of the menses, repletion of the whole body, immod-
erate use of  Venus, often handling the genitals,
difficult  childbirth, vehement  agitation  of the
body, falls, blows ; to which also may  be  added,
the use of sharp  pessaries,  whereby not  seldom
the womb is inflamed; cupping-glasses also fast-
ened to the  pubis and hypogastrium, draw the hu-
mours 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, trem- 
102          Aristotle's master-piece.
 bling of the heart; often  there  is a straitness of
 breath, by reason of the heat which is communi-
 cated to the midriff, the breasts sympathising with
 the  womb, pained  and swelled.  Further,  if the
 fore part of the matrix be inflamed, the privities
 are grieved, the urine is suppressed, or flows forth
 with difficulty.   If the after part,  the loins and
 back suffer, the  excrements are retained on  the
 right side, the right hip  suffers, the right  leg is
 heavy and slow to motion,  insomuch  that  some-
 times she seems to halt: and so  if the  left side of
 the womb be inflamed,  the left hip is pained, and
 the left leg is weaker than the right.  If the neck
 of the womb be refreshed, the midwife putting up
 her finger, shall feel the mouth of it retracted and
 closed up with a  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 ; but
 they are very perilous if in the neck of the womb.
 A flue  in the belly foretels health, if it be natural;
 for nature works  best  by the use of her own  in-
 struments.
   Cure.  In cure, first  let the humours flowing to
 the womb be repelled;  for effecting of  which,  af-
 ter the belly has been loosed by  cooling clysters,
 phlebotomy will be  needful; open therefore a vein
 in the arm, if she  be not with child; the day after
 strike the saphena on  both feet,  fasten ligatures
 and cupping-glasses to the arm,  and  rub .the up-
 per  part.   Purge gently with  cassia, rhubarb,
 senna,  mirobalans.  Take of senna two  drachms
 anniseed one scruple, mirobalans half  an ounce'
 barley-water a sufficient quantity ; make a decoc-
 tion ; dissolve it in syrup of succory, with rhubarb
two ounces, pulp of  cassia half an ounce  oil  of
anniseed two drops, and make a  potion.  At the
beginning of the disease anoint the privities and 
Aristotle's  master-piece*
103
reins with oil of roses and quinces ; make plasters
of plantain, linseed, barley-meal, melilot, fenugreek
whites of eggs, and,  if  the  pain  be  vehement, a
little opium ; foment the genitals with the decoc-
tion of poppy heads, purslain, knot-grass, and wa-
ter-lilies; then make injections of goat's milk, rose-
water, clarified whey,  with honey of roses.  In
the declining of the disease, use incisions of sage,
linseed,  mugwort, pennyroyal,  horehound,  and
fenugreek ; anoint the lower part of the belly with
the oil of camomile and Violets.
  Take  lily-roots and mallow-roots, of each four
ounces ; mercury one handful; mugwort, and fever-
few, camomile flowers, and melilot, of each a hand-
ful and a half; bruise  the  herbs and roots, and
boil them in  a sufficient quantity of milk; then
add fresh butter, oil of camomile, and  lilies, of
each two ounces ; bean-meal a sufficient quantity :
make two plasters,—the one  before, the other
behind.
  If the humour cannot be  removed,  but tends to
suppuration, take fenugreek, mallow-roots, decoc-
ted figs, linseed, barley-meal, dove's dung,  turpen-
tine, of  each three  drachms;  deer's suet  half  a
drachm, opium half a scruple ; with  wax make a
plaster.
  Take of bay leaves,  sage,  hyssop, camomile,
mugwort, and with water make an infusion.
  Take wormwood  and betony, of  each  half  a
handful;  white  wine  and milk, of each  half  a
pound ;  boil them until one part be confirmed ; then
take of this decoction four  ounces, honey of roses
two ounces, and make  an injection.  Yet  beware
that  the humours are not brought down unto the
womb.   Take roasted  figs  and mercury bruised,
of each three drachms; turpentine and  duck's
grease,  of each three drachms; opium, two grains ;
with wax make  a pessary. 
104         Aristotle's master-piece.
  The air must be cold; and all the motion of the
body, especially of the lower  part, is forbidden.
Vigilance is commended, for by sleep the humours
are carried inward, by  which  the inflammation is
increased:  eat sparingly; let your drink be barley
water, or clarified  whef1, and your meat be chick-
ens, and chicken broth, boiled with endive, suc-
cory,  sorrel, buglos, and mallows.
                 CHAP. IX.

      Of the Schirrosity, or Hardness of the Womb.

  Of phlegm neglected, or not perfectly cured, 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
many empirics administering to  an inflammation
of the womb, do over-much refrigerate and affrige
the humour, that it can neither pass forward nor
backward ; hence the matter being condensed, de-
generates into a lapidious hard  substance. Other
causes may be suppression of the menstrous re-
tention of the lochi, commonly  called the  after
purgings ; eating of corrupt meats, as in disordi-
nate longing called pica, to which breeding women
are so often  subject.  It may proceed also  from
obstructions and ulcers in the matrix, or from evil
effects in the liver and  spleen.
  Signs.  If the bottom of the womb be affected
she feels as it were  a heavy burden  representing
a mole; yet differing, in that the breasts are atten-
uated, and the  whole body waxed less.  If the 
            Aristotle's master-piece.          103

neck of the womb be affected, no outward humours
will appear: the mouth of it is retracted, and  be-
ing touched with the fingers, feels hard ; nor can
she have the company 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 smoth-
ered can hardly again  be  restored.
  Cure.  Where there is a repletion, phlebotomy
is advisable ; wherefore open the medina on both
arms, and  saphena  on both feet, more especially if
the menses be suppressed.
  Prepare the humour with syrup of borage suc-
cory,  epithynan, and clarified whey; then take of
these pills following, according to the strength of
the patient:
  Take of hiera picra six drachms, black helebore
polybody, of each two drachms and a half; agaric,
lapis lazuli, abluti  salindise, coloquintida, of each
one drachm and a half; mix them and make pills.
The body being purged, proceed  to mollify  the
hardness as  followeth:  anoint the privities  and
neck of the womb with  unguent,  decalthea,  and
agrippa; or take opopanax,  bdellium ammoniac,
and myrrh, of each two  drachms, saffron half a
drachm ;  dissolve the gum  in  oil of  lilies  and
sweet almonds; with wax and turpentine make an
unguent; apply below the navel ciacalion, ferellia;
make infusions of figs, mugwort, mallows, penny-
royal, althea, fennel roots, melilot, fenugreek, boil-
ed in water.  Make injection of calamint, linseed,
melilot, fenugreek, and the four  mollifying herbs,
with oil of dill, camomile, and lilies dissolved in
the same.  Three  drachms of the gum bdellium;
cast the stone pyrites on the  coals, and let her re-
ceive the fume into her womb.  Foment the se- 
106
Aristotle's master-piece.
cret parts with decoctions of the roots and leaves
of danewort.  Take of gum galbanum, opopanax,
of each one drachm, juice of danewort, mucilage,
fenugreek, of each one drachm ; calf's marrow  an
ounce, wax a sufficient quantity : make a pessary,
or make a pessary only of lead, dipping it in the
aforesaid things, and so put up.
   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 native
heat and aliment received, and so it turns into an
excrement.
  The causes are overmuch cold  or  moistness of
the melt and liver, immoderate drinking, eating of
crude meats; all  which,  causing a repletion, do
suffocate the natural heat. It may be caused like-
wise by the overflowing of the courses, or by any
other immoderate evacuation.  To these may be
added abortions,  phlegmons and schirrosities of
the womb.
   Cure.   The signs of this effect are these.   The
lower parts of the belly, with the genitals, are puff-
ed up, and pained; the feet swell, the natural col-
our 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 flowing of water is heard 
            Aristotle's master-piece.         107

Water sometimes 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 through the neck of the womb with a mur-
muring noise ; this effect may be  distinguished
from a true conception many ways, as will appear
by the chapter  " Of Conception."  It is distin-
guished from the general dropsy, in  that the low-
er parts of the belly are most swelled.  Again, in
this sanguificative faculty  it appears not so hurt-
ful, nor the urine so pale, nor the countenance so
soon changed, neither are  the superior parts ex-
tenuated, as in the general dropsy.
  Prognostics.   This effect foretels the sad ruin
of the natural functions, by that singular consent
the womb hath with the liver, and that therefore
chachevy, or general dropsy,  will follow.
  Cure.   In the cure of this disease  imitate the
practice of Hippocrates: first,  mitigate the pain
with  fomentation of melilot, mercury, mallows,
linseed, camomile, and althea; then let the  womb
be prepared with syrup of stosbis,  hyssop, cala-
mint, mugwort,  of both sorts, with the distilled
waters or decoction of elder, marjoram, sage, ori-
gan,  sperage, pennyroyal, betony; purge with
senna, agaric, rhubarb, and claterium. Take spec-
ierum, hier, rhubarb, and  trochisks of agaric, of
each one  scrnple; with juice of iros make pills.
  In disease which have their rise from moistness,
purge with pills.  And in these effects which are
caused by emptinessor dryness, purge with potion.
Fjsten a  cupping-glass to  the belly, with a great
fume ; and also the navel,  especially if the  swell-
ing be flatulent:  make  an issue on the inside of
each leg, a band breadth below the knee.  Take
specierum, diambrae diamolct, diacalaminti,  dia-
cinamoni, diocimini, and troch. demyrrha, of each
two drachms, sugar one pound ; with betony  wa 
10S          Aristotle's master-piece.

ter make lozenges : take of them two hours before
meals.  Apply to the bottom of the belly, as hot
as may be endured, a little bag of camomile, cum-
min, and melilot, boiled in oil of rue;  anoint the
belly and secret parts with  unguent agrippa and
unguent  arragOes; mingle therewith oil of iros;
cover the lower parts of the belly  with the plas-
ters of bay berries, or a cataplasm  made of cum-
min, camomile, briony  roots, adding  cow's and
goat's dung.
  Our moderns ascribe  great virtues to tobacco-
water distilled, and poured into the  womb by a me-
trenchyta.   Take  hin, balm, southern-wood, ori-
gan, wormwood, calamint, bay-leaves,  marjoram,
of each one handful; juniper berries four drachms ;
with water make a decoction: of this maybe made
fomentations and  infusions: make  pessaries of
storax, aloes,  with the  roots of dictau, aristolo-
chia, and gentian.   Instead of this you may use
pessary,  prescribe chapter xvii.  Let her take of
electuarium aromaticum,  dissatyron, and eringe
roots candied, every morning.
  The air must be  hot and  dry ;  moderate exer-
cise is allowed ;  much  sleep is forbidden.   She
may eat  the flesh of patridges, larks,  chickens,
mountain birds, hares, conies, Ace.   Let her drink
be thin wine.
                 CHAP. XI.

           Of Moles and False Conceptions.

  This disease is called by the Greeks mole ; and
the cause of this denomination is taken  from the
load or heavy  weight of  it,  it being a mole, or
great lump of hard flesh burdening the womb. 
            Aristotle's master-piece.         109

  It is defined to be and inarticulate piece of flesh,'
without form, begotten in a matrix as if it were a
true conception.  In which definition  we are to
note two things: first, in that a mole is said to be
inarticulate and without form, it differs  from mon-
sters, which are both formate and articulate : se-
condly,  it is said to be as it were a true concep-
tion, which puts a difference between a true con-
ception and a mole; which  difference holds good
three  ways ; first, in the genus, in that a mole can-
not be  said to be  an  animal: secondly, in that
species, because it hath  no human figure,  and
bears not the character of a man ; thirdly, in the
individual, for it hath no affinity with the parent,
either in the whole body or any particular part of
the same.
   Cause.  About the cause of this effect, amongst
learned  authors I find a  variety of  judgments.
Some are of opinion,  that if the woman's seed
goes into the womb, and not the man's, thereby is
the mole produced.  Others there be that affirm,
it  is engendered of the menstrous blood.  But  if
these two were granted, then  maids,  by having
their  courses,  or through nocturnal  pollutions,
might be subject to the same, which  never yet any
were. The true cause of this fleshy mole proceeds
both  from the man and the woman,  from cor-
corrupt and  barren seed  in man,  and from  the
menstruous blood in the woman, both emitted to-
gether in the cavity of the  womb,  where nature
finding herself weak, (yet desiring to maintain the
perpetuity of her species,) labours to bring forth a
vicious conception rather than none: and instead
of a living creature, generates a lump of flesh.
   Signs.  The  signs of a  mole are these:  the
months are suppressed, the appetite is depraved,
the breasts swell, and  the belly is suddenly puffed
un and waxeth hard.   Thus  far the  signs of a
  r'                   10 
110
Aristotle's master-piece.
breeding woman, and one that beareth a mole, are
all one  I will  show you how they  differ.  The
first sign of difference is taken from the motion of
a mole; it may  befek to move in the  womb before
the third month, which an infant cannot; yet the
motion  cannot  be understood of any  intelligent
power in the mole, but the faculty  of  the womb
and the animal spirits diffused through the sub-
stance ef the mole; for it hath not an animal but
a vegetative life, in manner of a plant:  secondly,
if a mole, the belly is suddenly puffed up; but if a
true conception,, the  belly  is  suddenly  retracted,
and then riseth  up.by degrees: thirdly, the  belly
being pressed with .the hand, the mole gives way ;-
and the hand being taken away, it returns to the
place again ; but a child in the womb, though press-
ed with the hand, moves not presently ; and being
removed, returns slowly, or not at all:  lastly, the
child continues in the womb not above eleven
months, but a mole continues sometimes four or
five years, more or less, according as it is fasten-
ed in the matrix.   I have known a mole fall away
in four or five months;  If it  remain   until the
eleventh month,  the legs  wax feeble, and the
whole  body consumes,  only the swelling of the
belly still increases, which makes some think they
are dropsical, though there be little reason, for it;
for in the dropsy the legs swell and grow big, but
in a mole they consume and wither.
  Prognostics.   If, at the delivery of a mole, the
flux of the blood be great, it shews the more  dan-
ger, because the parts  of  nutrition having  been
violated by the flowing back of the superfluous
humours, where the natural  heat  is consumed •
and then parting with  so much of her  blood  the
woman thereby is so weakened in all her faculties
that «-he cannot subsist without difficulty.
   Curt. We are taught in the school  of Hippo- 
              tAristotle's master-piece.          Ill

  •orates, that phlebotomy  causeth  abortion,  by ta-
   king all that nourishment which  should preserve
   the  life of the child : wherefore, that  this vicious
   conception may be deprived of that vegetative sap
   by which it lives, open the liver  vein 'and  the sa-
   phena in both the feet, fasten cupping-glasses  to
   the  loins and sides of the belly,  which  done, let
,  the  uterine parts be first mollified, and then the
   expulsive  faculty  provoked  to  expel the  bur-
   den.
     To laxate the ligatureof the mole, take mallows
   with the roots,  three handsful; camomile, melilot,
   pelitory of the wall, violet leaves, mercury, root of
   •fennel, parsley,  of each two handsful; linseed, fe-
   nugreek,  each  one pound.; boil them in water, and
   let her sit therein up to the navel.  At  her going
   out  of the bath, anoint the privities and reins with
   the  following unguent: take oil of camomile, lilies
   sweet almonds, one ounce each ; fresh butter, lau-
   danum, ammoniac,  of each half an ounce : with
   the  oil of linseed make an unguent.  Or, instead
   of this may be used unguentum agrippa, or dial-
   -thea. Take mercury and althea roots, of each half
   a handful; flos, brachoc,  ursini, half a handful;
   linseed, barley  meal, of each  six  ounces ; boil all
   these with water and honey,  and make a plaster;
   make pessaries  of the gum galbanum,  bdellium,
   antimonia cum, figs, hog's suet, and honey.
     After the ligaments of the  mole are loosed, let
   the   expulsive faculty be stirred up to expel  the
   mole : for effecting of which all medicaments may
   be  used  which are proper  to  bring  down  the
   courses.  Take troch. de myrrh one ounce; cas-
   tor  astrolochia,  gentian, dictam  of each half an
   ounce ; make a  powder ; take one drachm  in four
   •ounces of mugwort water. Take  of hypericon, ca-
   lamint, penny-royal,  betony,  hyssop, sage, hore-
   hound, Valeria,  madder,  savine; with water make 
112
ARISTOTEE's MASTER-MECE.
 a  decoction;  take  three  ounces of it,  with one
 ounce and a half of feverfew.   Take of mugwort,
 myrrh gentian, pill. coch.  of each four  scruples j;
 rue, pennyroyalr sage-panum,. opopanax, of each a
 drachm ; 'assafoetida^ cinnamon, juniper  berries,
 borage of each one drachm ;, with the juice of sa-
 vine make pills to be taken every morning:  make
 an  infusion of hyssop,  bay-leaves, asirum, cala-,
 mint j bay-berries,  camomile, mugwort, ervine,
 cloves, nutmeg,, of each two scruples ; galbanum
 one drachm;. hiera picra and black hellebore oil,,
 of each one  scruple y with turpentine  make  a
 pessary.
  But if these  things prove  not  available, then
 must the mole be drawn away with an instrument
 put up into the womb, called a pes griphus, which
 may be done with no great danger,  if it be per-
formed by a skilful  surgeon.  After  the delivery
of the mole, by reason that the woman hath part'
ed with much  blood already,, let the flux of  blood
be stayed as soon as may -be.  Fasten cupping-
glasses to the shoulders and ligatures of the arms.
If this help not, open  the  liver vein in the  right
 arm.
  The air must be tolerably hot and dry, and dry
diet, such as doth mollify and attenuate j she may
 drink white wine..
                 CHAP.  XII.

Of Conception, and how a Woman may know whether she hath
    conceived or not, and whether a Male or a Female.

  The natural instinct that nature has implanted
in men and women to propagate their own species
puts them uponmaking use of those ways that na<- 
            Aristotle's master-piece.          139

ture has ordained for that end, which, after  they
have made use of, the woman many times, through
ignorance of her having conceived, or want of that
due care which she ought to take, is little better
than a murderer of her own child, though she in-
tends it not; for, after conception, finding herself
not well, and, 'through ignorance, not  knowing
what is the matter with her, goes to a doctor and
inquires of him; and he knowing nothing but what
they tell him, and not thinking of their being with
child, gives  them strong cathartical potions which
destroy the  conception.  And some there are, that
out of a foolish coyness, though they do know they
have conceived, yet will not confess  it,  that they
might be instructed how  to order themselves ac-
cordingly ; those that are so coy may in time learn
to be wiser ; and for the  sake of those that are ig-
norant, I shall set down  the signs of conception,
that women may thereby know whether they have
conceived or not.
   Signs.  If under the eye the vein be swelled,
that is, under the lower  "eyelid, the  veins in the
eyes appearing clearly, and the  eyes sometimes
discoloured, if the woman has not the terms  upon
her, nor watched the night before, you  may cer-
tainly conclude her to be with child; and this ap-
pears most plainly just upon her conception ;  and
the first two months I never knew  this sign to
fail.
   Keep the  urine of the  woman close in a glass
three days,  and then strain it through a fine linen
cloth ; if you find small living creatures in it, she
has most  assuredly conceived with child;  for the
urine which was before part of her own substance,
will be generated as well as its mistress.
   A coldness and chillness of the outward parts
after copulation, the heat  being  retired  to  make
conception.
                     10* 
U4f          aristotee's master-piece.

  The veins of the breast are more  clearly seen
than they were wont to be.
  The body is weakened, and the face discoloured.
  Tlie belly waxeth very flat, because the  womb
closeth itself together to nourish and cherish the
seed.
  If cold water be drank, a coldness  is left  in the
breasts.
  Loss of appetite to victuals, sour belchings, and
exceeding weakness of stomach.
  The breasts begin to swell and wax hard, not
without pain and soreness.
  Wringing or griping pains, like the cramp, hap-
pen in the belly about the navel.
  Divers appetites and longings are engendered.
  The veins of the eyes are clearly seen, and the
eyes seem something  discoloured,  as a looking-
glass wHl show you.  This is an  infallible sign.
  The excrements of the guts are voided painful-
ly, because the womb swelling thrusteth the right
gut together.
  Take a handsome green nettle, and put  it  into
the urine of the woman ; cover it close, and let  it
remain a whole night; if the woman be with child,
it will be full of red spots on the morrow; if she be
not,  it will be blackish.
  There are several other rules of this nature, but
these are the best, and some of them seldom fail.
  Now,  because  many are mighty  desirous to
know whether they be with child of  a male or a
female, I will in the  next place  lay  down some
rules whereby you may form a proper judgment in
that case.

               Signs of a Male Child.

  The woman breeds a boy easier  and with  less
pain than girls, and carries her burden not so heav-
ily, but is more nimble in stirring. 
            Aristotle's master-piece.          115

  The child is first felt by her on the right  side ;
for the ancients are of opinion that male children
lie on the right side  of the  womb.  The woman,
when she riseth up from a chair, doth sooner stay
herself upon her right hand than on her left.
  The belly lies rounder and higher than when it
is a female.
  The right breast is more plump and harder than
the left,  and the right nipple redder.
  The colour of a woman is more clear and not
so swarthy as when she conceives a girl.
  The contrary to these are signs of the concep-
tion of a female, and therefore it is needless to say
any thing of them.
  But I will add the following,  which  have been
the result of my own experience, and which  I
never knew to fail.
  If the circle under the woman's eyes, which is
of a wan blue colour, be more apparent under the
right eye, and the veins most apparent in her right
eye, and there most discoloured, she is with child
of a boy ;  if the marks be most apparent in her left
eye, she is with child of a girl.
  Again, let her milk  a drop of her milk in a ba-
son of fair water ; if it sinks to the bottom, as it
drops in, round in a drop, it is  a girl she is with
child of;  but if it be a boy, it will spread  and
swim at top. This I have often tried, and it never
foiled.
                 CHAP. XIII.

               Of Untimely Births.

  When the fruit of the womb comes forth before
the seventh month,  that is, before it comes to ma- 
116
Aristotle's master-piece.
turity, it is said to be abortive ; and, in effect, the
child proves abortive (I mean,  does not  live) if
born in the eight month.  And why children born
in the seventh or ninth month may live, and not
in the eighth month, may seem  strange, yet it  is
true.  The cause thereof, by some, is ascribed to the
planet under which the child  is born;  for every
month, from the conception to the birth, governed
by its proper planet; and in the eighth month Sa-
turn doth predominate,  which is  cold  and dry ;
and coldness being an utter enemy to life, destroys
the nature«of the child.   Hippocrates gives a bet-
ter reason, viz. the infant being every way perfect
and complete in the seventh month, desires more
air and nutriment than it had before ; and because
in cannot obtain these,  it labours for a passage  to
go out; and if its spirits become weak and faint,
and have not strength sufficient to break the mem-
branes and come forth, as it is decreed by  nature,
it shall continue in the womb  till the ninth month,
that  in that time its wearied spirits may again be
strengthened and refreshed ;  but if it returns  to
strive again  the eighth  month, and be born, it can-
not live, because the day of its birth is either past
or to come.  For, in the eighth month, saith Aven,
he is weak and infirm; and, therefore, being then
cast into the cold air, his spirits cannot be sup-
ported.
   Cure.   Untimely birth may be caused by cold ;
for as it maketh the fruit of the tree to wither and
to fall down before it be ripe,  so doth it nip the
fruit of the womb before it comes  to full perfection
and makes it to be abortive; sometime by humid*
lty, weakening the faculty, that the fruit cannot
be restrained  till the due time;  by  dryness   or
emptiness, defrauding the child of its nourishment •
by one of those alcine fluxes, by  phlebotomy,  and
other evacuations; by inflammations of the womb 
            Aristotle's  master-piece.         117

and other sharp diseases. Sometimes it is caused,
by laughter, joy, anger, and especially fear ; for in
that the heat forsakes the womb,, and runs to the
heart for help there, and so cold strikes in the ma-
trix, whereby the ligaments  are  relaxed, and so
abortion follows ; wherefore  Plato, in his time,
commanded that the woman should shun all temp-
tations of immoderate joy and pleasure, and like-
wise avoid  all occasions of fear and grief.  Abor-
tion also may be caused by the corruption of the
air, by filthy odours, and especially by the smell
of the snuffof a candle ; also by falls, blows, vio-
lent exercise, leaping, dancing, &c.
  Signs.  Signs of future abortion are, extenua-
tion of the breasts, with a flux of watery milk, pain
in the womb, heaviness in the head, unusual weari-
ness in the hips and  thighs, flowing of the cours-
es.  Signs  foretelling thefruit to be dead in the
womb, are hollowness in the eyes, pain in the head,
anguish, horror, paleness of the face and lips gnaw-
ing of the stomach, no motion of the infant,  cold-
ness and looseness of the mouth of the womb, and
thickness of the belly, and watery  and bloody ex-
erements come from th^natrix.
                  CHAP. XIV.

           Directions for Breeding Women.

  The prevention of untimely births consists in
taking away  the forementioned  causes,  which
must be effected before and after the conception.
  Before conception, if the body be over hot, dry,
or moist, correct it with the contraries : if couch-
mical purge it:  if plethorical, open the liver vein:
if too gross, attenuate it:  if too lean, corroborate 
jig          Aristotle's master-piece.

and nourish it. All diseases of the womb must b<»
removed as I have shewed.
  After  conception,  let  the  air  be temperate;
sleep not overmuch, avoid watchings, much exer-
cise  of body, passions of the mind, loud clamours,
and filthy smells:  sweet odours also are to be re-
jected of those that are hysterical.   Abstain from
all things which provoke either the urine  or the
courses; also from salt, sharp, and windy  meats.
A moderate diet should be observed.
  If the excrements of the guts be retained, lenify
the belly with clysters  made of the decoction of
mallows, violets, with sugar and common  oil;  or
make broth with borage, buglos, beets, mallows, ta-
king in the same a little manna. On the contrary,
if she be troubled with looseness in the belly, let
it not be stayed without the judgment of a physi-
cian ;  for all  the  uterine fluxes  have a  malign
quality in them, which must be evacuated before
the flux stayed.
   The cough is another accident which accompa-
nieth breeding women, and puts them in great dan-
ger of miscarrying, by a continual distillation fall-
ing from the brain. Toj^event which, shave away
the hair on the cornal ant* satical  coissures, and
apply thereon the following plaster : take of resinro
half an ounce, of laudana  one drachm, citron peel,
lign, aloes, olibani, of each a drachm ; stirachis li-
quidae, and. sicca,  a sufficient quantity ; dissolve
the  gums in vinegar, and make a plaster ; at night
 going to bed let her take  the fume of  these  tro-
 chisks cast upon the.coals.   Also, take  of frankin-
 cense,  storax  powder,  and red roses,  of  each a
 drachm and a half, sandrach eight drachms, mastic,
 benjamin, amber,  of each one drachm; with  tur-
 pentine make  trochisks,  apply a  cautery  to the
 nape of the neck.   And every night let her take
 these pills following : take hypocistides, terriaa, si- 
            Aristotle's master-piece.         119

gillate, fine bole, of each half an ounce; bastort, al-
catia styracis, calamint of each two drachms, cloves
one drachm ; with syrup of myrtles make pills.
  Inbreeding women there is a corrupted matter
generated, which flowing to the ventricle dejecteth
the appetite, and causeth a vomiting ; and the sto-
mach being  weak, and not able to digest this mat-
ter, sometimes send  it to  the guts, whereby  is
caused a flux in the belly, which greatly stirreth
up the faculty of the womb.  To prevent  all these
dangers, the stomach must be corroborated as folr
lows:  take  lign. aloes and  nutmeg, of each one
drachm; mace, clove, mastic, and  laudanum,  of
each two  scruples; oil of spike  an ounce; musk
two grains ; oil of mastic, quinces, and wormwood
of each half an ounce; make an unguent for the
stomach,  to be applied before meals.  But instead
thereof may be used ceronum, stomachile, galeni.
Take of conserve of borage, buglos, and atthos, of
each half an ounce j comfect. de hyacinth, lemon
peel candied, specierum, diamarg. pulv.  de  gem-
mis of each two  drachms ; nutmeg  and  diambra,
of each two scruples ; piony roots  and diacorati,
of each two drachms; with  syrup of roses  make
an electuary ; of which she must take twice a day,
two hours before' meals.   Another accident which
perplexeth a woman with child is swelling of the
legs, which happens  the first three months, by su-
perfluous humours falling down from the stomach
and liver : for the cure whereof, take oil  of roses
two drachms, salt and vinegar, of each one drachm;
shake them tegether until the  salt be dissolved,
and anoint  the legs therewith hot,  chafing it  in
with the  hand: it may be done without danger  in
the fourth, fifth,  or sixth monthof pregnancy ; for
the child in the womb may be compared  to an ap-
ple on a tree;  the  first three months it  is  weak
and tender, subject, with the apple, to fall away; 
120
Aristotle's master-piece.
but afterwards, the membranes being strengthen-
ed, the fruit remains firmly fastened to the womh,
not apt to mischances, and so continues until the
seventh month, till growing near the time its liga-
ments are again relaxed, like the apple that is al-
most ripe, and grow looser every day until the fix-
ed time of delivery. If, therefore, the body is in
real need of purging, she may do it without dan-
 fer in the fourth, fifth, or sixth  months; but not
 efore nor after, unless  in some sharp diseases, in
which the mother and the child both are like to
perish.   Apply plasters and unguents to the reins,
to strengthen the fruit of the  womb.  Take of gum
agaric, galangale, bistort, hypocistid. and storax,
of each one drachm; fine bole, nutmeg,  mastic,
bollust',  sanguis draconis, and  myrtle berries, a
•drachm and a half; wax and turpentine  a suffi-
cient  quantity ; make a  plaster.  Apply it to the
reins  in the winter time, and remove it every twen-
ty-four hours, lest the reins be over hot therewith.
In the interim anoint the privities and  reins with
unguent and consitissae ; but if it be the summer
time,  and the  reins hot, the  following  plaster is
more proper : take of red roses one pound, mastic
and red sanders, of each two  drachms ; bole  am-
moniac, red coral and bistort, eaoh two drachms;
pomegranate peel prepared, and coriander, of each
two drachms and a half; barberries two scruples;
oil of mastic and quinces, of each an ounce ; juice
of plantain, two drachms; with pitch make a plas-
ter ; anoint the reins also with unguentum sandal.
Once every week wash  the reins with two parts
of rose-water, and one part of white wine mingled
together and  warmed at the  fire.   This will  as-
suage the heat of the reins, and disperse the oil of
the plaster out of the pores of the skin, and cause
the ointment or plaster the sooner to penetrate and
strengthen the womb.   Some are of opinion, that 
"Z&^^^m^r.
            Aristotle's master-piece.          121

as long  as  the  loadstone is laid  to  the navel, it
keeps the woman from abortion.  The like is also
recorded of the stone oetites, being hanged about
the neck ; the same virtue hath the stone samius.
                 CHAP. XV.

Directions to be observed by Women at the time of their falling
  in Labour, in order to their safe Delivery, with Directions
 for Midwives.

  Having given  necessary directions for  child-
bearing women, how to govern themselves during
the time of their pregnancy, I shall add what  is
necessary for  them to observe  in  order to their
delivery.
  The time  of birth drawing near, let the woman
be careful to send for a skilful midwife, and that
rather too soon than too late; against which time
let her prepare a pallet, bed, or  couch, and place
it near the  fire, that the midwife and assistants
may pass round, and help on every side as occa-
sion requires, having a change of linen ready, and
a small stool to rest her  feet against, she having
more force when they are bowed than when they
are otherwise.
  Having thus provided, when  the woman feels
her pain  come, and the 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
outward  membranes, and flows thence when it  is
broke by the struggling of the child,  there being
no direct time fixed for the efflux, though general-
ly it  flows not above two hours  before the birth.
Motion will likewise cause the womb to open and
dilate itself, when from  lying long in  bed it is un-
                      11 
122
Aristotle's master-piece.
easy. Yet if she be very weak, she may take some
gentle cordial to refresh  herself,  if her pain will
permit.
  If her travail be tedious, she may revive her spi-
rits with taking chicken or mutton broth, or she
may  take a poached egg, but must  take heed of
eating to excess.
  As for the  postures  women are delivered in,
they are many, some lying on their beds, some sit-
ting in a chair, supported and held by others, or
resting upon the bed or  chair; some again upon
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 help  of a  pillow,
having the like help to support her reins and but-
tocks, and that the rump may lie high ; for if she lies
low she cannot be well delivered. Then let her keep
her knees and thighs as far distant as she can, her
legs bowed together to her buttocks,  the  soles of
her feet and heels being fixed upon a Tittle log of
timber placed for that purpose, that she may strain
the stronger ; and in case her back  be very weak,
a swathing band must be cast under  it, the band
being  four times  double, and about two inches
broad ; and this must be held by two persons, who
with steady  hands  and  equal motion must raise
her up at the time her pains happen ; but if they
be not exact in their motion, it is better to let it
alone.. And at the same  time, let two women hold
her shoulders that she  may  then  strain  out the
birth with more advantage; and then to facilitate
it, let a woman stroke or press the  upper part of
the belly gently and by  degrees.   Nor must the
woman herself be faint-hearted, but of good cour-
age, forcing herself by  straining and holding her
breath 
Aristotle's  master-piece.
123
  In case of delivery, the midwife must wait with
patience till the child's head or other members
burst .the membrane: for if through ignorance, or
haste to go to other women, as some  have done,
the midwife tear the membrane with her nails, she
endangers both the woman and the child; for by
lying dry, and wanting that slipperiness that should
make it easy it comes forth with great pains.
  When the head appears, the midwife must gent-
ly hold it between her hand, and draw the child at
such times  as the woman's pains are upon her, and
at no other, slipping by degrees her forefingers
under its arm-pits, not using a rough hand in draw-
ing it forth, lest by that means the tender infant
may receive any deformity of body.  As  soon as
the child is taken forth, which is for the most part
with its face downwards, let it be laid on its back,
that it may more freely receive external  respira-
tion ; then  cut the navel string about  three inches
from the body, tying that end which adheres to
the body with a  silken string, as near as you can ;
then cover  the head and stomach of the child  well,
suffering nothing to come upon the face.
  The child being thus brought forth, if healthy,
lay it by, and then let the midwife  regard the pa-
tient in drawing  forth the secundine; and this she
may do by  wagging and stirring them up and down
and afterwards with  a gentle hand  drawing them
forth; and  if the work be difficult, let the woman
hold salt in her hands, shutthem close, and breathe
hard into them, and thereby she will know whether
the membranes be broken or not.  It  may be also
known by causing her to strain or vomit,  by put-
ting her finger down her throat, or by straining or
moving her lower parts ; but let all  be done out of
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 assafcetida, especially if  she  is trou- 
124          Aristotle's master-piece.

bled with the windy cholic.  If she happen to take
cold, it is a great obstruction to the coming down
of the secundine: and in such cases the midwife
ought to chafe the woman's belly gently, to break
not only the wind,  but oblige the secundine to
come down.  But these proving ineffectual, the
midwife must insert her hand into  the  extern or
orifice of the womb, and gently draw  it forth.
  Having now discoursed of common  births, or
such as are for the most part easy, I shall now
give directions in cases of extremity.
                 CHAP.  XVI.

In Case of Extremity, what ought to be observed; especially to
  Women, who, in their Travail, are attended with a Flux of
  Blood, Convulsions and Fits of the Mind.

  If the  woman's  labour be  hard and difficult,
greater  regard must be had than at other times.
And first of all, the situation of  the womb and
posture  of lying must be  across the bed, being
held by strong persons to prevent her slipping
down or moving  herself  in the  operation of the
chirurgeon; her thighs must be put asunder, as
far distant as may be, and so held ; whilst her head
must lean upon a bolster, and the reins of her back
be supported after the same manner.  Her rump
and buttocks being lifted up, observe to  cover her
stomach, belly, and thighs, with warm linen, to
keep thens from the cold.
  The woman being in this posture, let the opera-
tor put  up his or her hand, if the neck of the womb
be dilated, and remove the contracted blood that
obstructs the passage of the birth ; and having by
degrees gently made way, let him  tenderly  move
the infant, his hand being first anointed with sweet 
Aristotle's master-piece.
125
butter or a harmless pomatum.  And if the waters
be not come down, then without difficulty  may
they be let forth; when, if the infant should at-
tempt to break out with its head foremost or cross,
he may gently turn it to find the feet $ which hav-
ing done, let him draw forth the one, and fasten it
to the riband, then put it up again, and by degrees
find the other, bringing them as close arid even as
may be, and  between whiles let the woman breathe,
urging her to strain, in helping nature to perfect
the birth, that it may be drawn forth;  and the
readier to  do it, and that the hold may be the surer,
wrap a linen cloth about the child's thighs, observ-
ing to  bring it into the world with its face down-
wards.
   In case of a flux of  blood, if the neck of the
womb  be open, it must be considered whether the
infant  or secundine comes first, which the  latter
sometimes happening to  do, stops the mouth of
the womb, and hinders the birth, endangering both
the woman and child ; but in this case the secun-
dine must be removed  by a swift turn ; and indeed
they have by their so coming down deceived many
who feeling  their  softness, suppposed the womb
was not dilated,  and by this  means the woman
and child, or at least the latter, has been lost. The
secundine moved, the child must be sought for,
and drawn forth, as has been directed ; and  if in
such a case  the'woman or child die, the midwife
or  surgeon  is blameless, because they did  their
true endeavour.
   If it appears upon inquiry that the secundine
comes first,  let the woman be delivered with all
convenient  expedition, because  a great flux of
blood will follow;  for the veins  are opened, and
upon this  account two things are to beconsidered.
   First, The manner of the secundine advancing,
whether it be much or  little  If  the former, and 
126
Aristotle's master-piece.
the head of the child appear first, it may be guid-
ed and directed towards the neck of the womb, as
in the case of natural birth ; but if there appear
any difficulty in the delivery, the best way is 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 is the secundine to be taken forth with much
care, as swift as may be, and laid easy without cut-
ting the entrail that is fastened to them ; for there-
by you may be guided to the infant, which, wheth-
er alive or dead, must be drawn  forth by the feet
in all haste ; though it  is not to be acted unless in
case of great necessity, for in other cases the  se-
cundine 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 being foremost,
the delivery will be more difficult; for it is an ap-
parent sign, by the Woman's strength beginning to
fail her, that the child, being dead, and wanting its
natural force, can be no ways assisting to its deli-
very : wherefore the most  certain and safe way for
the surgeon is to put  up his left hand, sliding it as
hollow in the palm as he can  into the neck  of the
womb, and into the lower part thereof towards the
feet, and then between the head of the infant and
the neck of the matrjx ; then having a hook in the
right hand, couch it close, and slip it up above the
left hand, between the head of the child and the
flat of his hand, fixing it in the bars of the temple
towards the eye.  For want of a convenient com-
ing at these in the occiputal bone, observe still to
keep the left hand in its place, and with it gently
moving and stirring the head, and so with the rio-ht
hand and hook draw the child forward, admonish- 
Aristotle's  master-piece.
127
ing the woman to put forth her utmost  strength,
still drawing when the woman's pangs are upon
her.  The head 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, viz. a toast of fine wheaten bread
in a quarter of a pint of Ipocras wine.
  Now the former application  failing, when  the
woman is in her bed, let  her receive the following
potion hot,  and rest till she feels the operation.
  Take seven  blue figs, cut them to pieces, add to
them fenugreek, motherwort,  and  seed of  rue, of
each five drachms; water of pennyroyal and mo-
therwort, of each  six  ounces; boil them till  one
half be consumed ; and having strained them again
add trochisks of myrrh one drachm, and  saffron
three grains ; sweeten the liquor with loaf-sugar,
and spice it with  cinnamon.
  Having rested upon this, let her labour again as
much as  may  be; and if she be  not successful,
make a fumigation of castor, opopanax, sulphur,
and assafoetida, of each  half a drachm, beating
them into powder, and wetting them with the juice
of rue, so that the smoke or fume may only come
to the matrix, and no farther.
  If these effect not your desire, then the  follow-
ing plaster  is to be applied, viz.  Take of galba-
num an  ounce and a half;  colocynthia without
grains, two drachms ; the juice of motherwort and
rue, of each half an ounce, and seven  ounces of
virgin bees' wax ; bruise  and  melt them  together,
spreading them on a searcloth, to reach from  the
navel to the os pubis, spreading also the flax, at
the same time making a convenient pessary  of
wood, closing  it in a bag of silk, and dipping it in
a decoction of round birthwort, savin, colocynthia
with grains ; stavescare, black hellebore, of each
one drachm ; and  a little  sprig of rue. 
128          Aristotle's master-piece.

  But tnose things not having the desired success
and the woman's danger  still  increasing, let the
surgeon use his instruments to dilate and widen
the womb; to which end  the woman must be set
in a chair, so that she  may turn her crupper as
much from its bacl^as is convenient, drawing like-
wise her legs up as  close as  she can, spreading
her thighs as wide as may be ; or if she be  very
weak, it may be more convenient that she be laid
on a bed with her head downwards, and her but-
tocks raised,  and both legs drawn up as much as
may  be; the surgeon then, with his speculum ma-
tricis, or his apertory, may dilate the  womb, and
draw out the child and secundine together, if it be
possible: the which  being done,  the womb must
be well washed and  anointed, and the  woman laid
in bed, and  comforted with spices  and cordials.
This course must be taken in the delivery of  all
dead children, likewise with moles, secundine, and
false  births,  that  will not of themselves come
forth in season.  If  the instrument aforesaid will
not sufficiently widen the womb, then other in-
struments, as the drake's bill, and  long pincers,
ought to be used.
  If 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 matter appears thinner,
then  let the midwife, with a pen-knife, or incision
instrument, lance it, and press out the corruption
healing  it with  a pessary  dipped in oil of red
roses.
  If  at any time, through cold or some violence,
the child happens to be swelled in any part, or
hath  contracted a watery humour,  if it remain
alive, such means must be used as are least inju-
rious to the child or  mother; but if it be dead, the
humours must be let out by incision to facilitate
the birth. 
Aristotle's master-piece.
129
  If, as it often happens, that the child comes with
its feet foremost, and the  hands dilating them-
selves from the hips, in such cases the midwife
must be provided with necessary instruments to
stroke and anoint the infant with, to help it coming
forth, lest it turn again into the womb, holding at
the same time both the arms of the infant close to
the hips,  that so it may issue forth after this man-
ner ; but  if it proves  too big, the womb must be
well anointed.  The woman must also take sneez-
ing-powder, to make her strain ; those who attend
may gently stroke her belly to make the birth de-
scend,  and  keep it from retiring back.
  Sometimes it falls out that the 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 into the womb, unless the passage be
extraordinarily wide, and then she mus^ailoint
both the  child and the womb ; nor is  it  sale so to
draw it forth, which must be done after this man-
ner: the  woman must be laid  on her back, with
her head depressed, and her buttocks raised ; and
then the  midwife, with a gentle hand, must com-
press the belly of the womb, by that means to put
back the infant, observing to turn the face of the
child 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  child happen to come forth with one foot,
the arm being extended along  the side, and the
other foot turned backward, then must the woman
be  instantly taken to her bed, and laid  in the pos-
ture above described ; at which time the midwife
must carefully put back the foot so appearing, and
the woman rock herself from one side to the other,
till she find the child is turned, but must not alter
the posture, nor turn upon her  face ; after which
she may expect  her pains, and must have great 
130*         ARISTOTLE'S MASTER-PIECE.
 assistance and cordials to revive and support her
 spirits.
   At other times it happens that the child lies
 across in the womb, and falls upon its side : in this
 case the woman must not be urged in her labour,
 neither can any expect 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  most easy,  by
 moving the buttocks, and guiding the head to the
 passage ; and if she be unsuccessful herein, let the
 woman 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 case, the woman must rock herself, but not
 witrr^lence, till she finds those parts fall to their
 proper 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 hand on
the side of the child, and in that posture endeav-
our to bring it forth.   But if she cannot  do  this,
then also must the woman rock  herself till the
child is in a more convenient posture for delivery.
  Sometimes it happens that the child presses
forward with  one arm  stretched on its thighs and
the other raised over its head, and the feet'stretch- 
            Aristotle's master-piece.          131

ed out at length in the womb.  In such case, the
midwife must not attempt to receive the child  in
that posture, but must lay the woman on the bed
in the manner aforesaid, making a soft and gentle
compression on her belly, to  oblige the child to
retire ; which if it does not, then must the midwife
thrust it back by the shoulder, and bring the arm
that was stretched above the head to its right sta-
tion ; for there is most danger in these extremities;
and^, therefore, the midwife must anoint her hands
and the womb  of the woman  with sweet butter,
or a proper pomatum,  and thrust her hand  as
near as she can to the arm of the infant, and bring
it to the side.   But if this cannot be done, let the
woman be laid on her bed to rest awhile ; in which
time, perhaps, the child may be reduced to a bet-
ter posture, which the midwife finding, she must
draw tenderly the arms close to the hips, and so
receive it.
   If an  infant  come with its buttocks foremost,
and almost double, then the midwife must anoint
her hand and thrust it up, and gently heaving  up
the buttocks and back, strive to turn the head to
the passage, but not too hastily, lest the infant's
retiring should shape it worse ; therefore, if it can-
not  be turned with the  hand, the woman must
rock herself on the bed, taking such comfortable
things as may support her spirits, tilli she per-
ceives the child to turn.
   If the child's neck be bowed, and it comes  for-
ward with  its  shoulders, as  sometimes  it doth,
with the hands and feet  stretched upwards, the
midwife must gently move the shoulders, that she
may direct the head to the passage ? and the bet-
ter to effect it, the woman must rock herself as
aforesaid.
   These and other the like methods are to be ob-
served in case a woman hath twins, or  three chil- 
132
Aristotle's master-piece.
dren at a birth, which sometimes happens : for, as
the single birth hath but  one natural and  many
unnatural forms, even so it may be in a double or
treble birth.
  Wherefore, in all such cases, the midwife must
take care to receive that first which is nearest 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 natural way,
is more easy, because the  children are commdnly
less than those of single birth, and  so require a less
passage.   But if this birth come unnaturally, it is
far  more dangerous than the other.
  In the birth of twins, let the midwife be  very
careful that the secundine be naturally brought
forth, lest the womb, being delivered of its burden,
fall, and  so the  secundine continue  longer there
than is consistent with the woman's safety.
  But if one of the twins happens to come with the
head, the other with the feet foremost, then let the
midwife deliver the natural birth first; and if she
cannot turn the other, draw it out in the posture it
presses forward ; but if that with its feet downward
be foremost, she may deliver that first, turning the
other aside. But in this case the midwife must care-
fully see that it be not a monstrous birth, instead
of twins, a body with two heads, or two  bodies
joined together ; which she may soon know, if both
the heads come foremost, by putting up her hand
between them, as high as she can ; and then  if she
find they are twins, she may gently put one of them
aside to make way for the  other, taking that first
which is most  advanced, leaving the other so  that
it do not change its situation. And, for the safety
of the other child, as soon  as it comes forth out of
the womb, the midwife must tie the navel-string'
as hath before been directed ; and also bind  with 
            Aristotle's master-piece.         133

a large and long fillet, that part of the navel that
is fastened to the secundine, the more readily to
find it.
  The second infant being born, let  the midwife
carefully examine whether there be not two secun-
dines ; for sometimes it falls out, that by the short-
ness of the ligaments, it retires back,  to the pre-
judice of the woman. Wherefore, lest- the  womb
should close, it is most expedient to  hasten them
forth with all convenient  speed.
  If two infants are joined together by the body,
as sometimes it monstrously falls out, then, though
the head should come foremost,  yet  it is proper,
if possible, to turn them,  and draw them forth by
the feet, observing, when they come to the hips,
to draw them out as soon as may be.  And here
great care ought to be used in anointing and widen-
ing the passage.   But these sorts of births  rarely
happening, I need  to say the  less of them; and,
therefore, shall next show how women should be
ordered after delivery.
                 CHAP. XVII.

How Childbearing  Women ought to be ordered after Delivery.

  If a woman has had very hard labour, it is ne-
cessary she should be wrapped up  in a  sheep's
skin, taken off before it is cold, applying the fleshy
side to her reins or belly ; or, for want of this, the
skin of a hare or coney, flayed off as soon as killed,
may be applied to the same parts ; and in so doing
a dilation being made in the birth, and the melan-
choly blood expelled in these parts, continue these
for an hour or two.
  Let the woman afterwards be swathed with fine
                      12 
134
Aristotle's master-piece.
linen cloth, about a quarter of a yard in breadth,
chafing her belly, before it is swathed, with oil of
St. John's wort; after that, raise up  the  matrix
with a linen cloth, many times folded ; then with
a linen pillow or quilt cover her flanks, and place
the swathe somewhat above the haunches, winding
it pretty stiff, applying, at the same time, a warm
cloth to her- nipples ; do not immediately use  the
remedies  to keep back the milk, by  reason  the
body, at such  a time, is out of frame; for there is
neither vein nor artery which  does  not strongly
beat; and remedies to drive back the milk, being
of a dissolving nature, it is improper to apply them
to the breasts, during such disorder, lest by doing
so,  evil  humours be  contracted  in  the breast.
Wherefore, twelve hours at least ought to  be al-
lowed for the circulation  and  settlement  of  the
blood, and what was cast on the lungs by the ve-
hement agitation during the labour, to retire to its
proper receptacles.
  Some time after delivery, you may make a  re-
strictive of the yolks of two eggs, and a quarter of
a pint of white wine, oil of St.  John's wort, oil of
roses, plantain, and rose-water, of each an ounce ;
mix them together, fold a linen cloth, and apply it
to the breast, and the pains of those parts will be
greatly eased.
  She must by np means sleep  directly after deli-
livery ; but about four hours after, she  may take
broth, caudle, or such liquid victuals as are nour-
ishment ;  and  if she be disposed to sleep, it may
be very safely permitted.  And this is as much, in
case of a natural birth, as  ought immediately to
be done.
   But in  case of an extremity, or an unnatural
birth, the following rules ought to be observed :
   In the first place, let the woman keep a temper-
ate diet, by no means overcharging  herself after 
Aristotle's master-piece.
135
such an extraordinary evacuation, not being ruled
by giving credit to unskilful nurses,  who  admon-
ish them to feed heartily, the better to repair  the
loss of blood.  For that blood is not for the most
part  pure, but such as  has  been detained in  the
vessels or membrane, better voided, for the health
of the woman, than kept, unless there happen an
extraordinary flux of the blood.  For if her  nour-
ishment be too much, it may make her  liable to a
fever, and increase the  milk  too much; curdling,
very often turns to imposthumes.
   Wherefore, it is requisite, for the first five days
especially, that she take moderately, panado broth,
poached eggs, jelly of chickens or calves' feet, or
fresh barley broth, every day increasing the quan-
tity  a little.
   And if she intend to  be a nurse to her child, she
must take  something more than ordinary,  to in-
crease the milk by degrees, which must be  of no
continuance, but drawn off either by the  child or
otherwise.  In this case likewise, observe  to  let
her have coriander or fennel seeds boiled in bar-
ley broth ; but by all means, for the time specified,
let her abstain from meat.   If no fever trouble her,
she may drink now and then a  small quantity of
pure white wine or claret, as also, syrup of maiden-
hair, or any other syrup that is of an  astringent
quality, taken in a little water well boiled.
   After the fear of a fever  or  contraction of hu-
mour in the breast is over, she may  be nourished
more plentifully with the broth of pullets, capons,
pigeons, mutton, veal, &C, which must not  be till
after eight days from the time of  delivery; at
which time the womb, unless some accident hinder
has purged itself.  It will be then likewise expe-
dient to give cold meats,  but let it  be sparingly,
that so she may the better gather strength.   And
let her, during the time, rest quitely and free from 
136
Aristotle's master-piece.
disturbance, not sleeping in the day-time,  if she
can avoid it.
   Take of both the mallows and  pellitory  of the
wall a handful; camomile and melilot flowers, of
each a handful; anniseed and fennel seed, of each
two ounces ; boil them in a decoction  of sheep's
head, and take of this three quarts, dissolving in
it common honey, coarse sugar, and new fresh but-
ter, two ounces ; strain it well, and adminster it
clysterwise ; but if it does not operate  well, take
an ounce of catholican.
                CHAP. XVIII.

    How to expel the Cholic from Women in Childbirth.

  These pains frequently afflict the woman no less
than the pains of her labour, and are by the igno-
rant taken many times the one for the other; and
sometimes they happen both at the same instant;
which is occasioned by a raw, crude, and  watery
matter in the stomach, contracted through ill  di-
gestion ; and while such pains continue, the wo-
man's travail is retarded.
  Therefore,  to expel  fits of the cholic, take two
ounces of oil of sweet  almonds, and an ounce of
cinnamon water, with  three or four drops of spirits
of ginger; then let the woman drink it off.
  If this does not abate the pain,  make a  clyster
of camomile, balm-leaves, oil of olives, and new
milk, boiling the former in the latter. Administer
it as is usual in such  cases.  And then fomenta-
tions proper for dispelling  of  wind will not  be
amiss.
  If the pain produce  a griping in the guts after
delivery, then take of the root  of great comfrey 
            Aristotle's master-piece.        137

one drachm, nutmeg and peach kernals of each two
scruples, yellow amber eight drachms,  ambergris
one scruple; bruise them together, and give them
to the woman as she is laid down, in two or three
spoonsful of white wine; but if she be feverish,
then let it be in as much warm broth.
                     12* 
                  THE

FAMILY  PHYSICIAN:

                  BEING

 CHOICE AND APPROVED REMEDIES

         FOR SEVERAL DISTEMPERS

  INCIDENTAL  TO HUMAN BODIES
               For the Apoplexy.
  Take man's skull prepared, powder of the roots
of male peony, of each an ounce and a half;  con-
trayerva,  bastard dittany, angelica, zedoary, of
each two drachms;  mix and make a powder; add
thereto two ounces of candied orange and lemon
peel, beat all together to a powder, wherefore you
may take half a drachm or a drachm.
     A Powder for the Epilepsy or Falling Sickness.
  Take of opopanax, crude antimony, castor, dra-
gons's blood, peoney-seeds, of each an equal quan-
tity ; make a subtle powder;  the  dose,  half a
drachm, in black  cherry-water.  Before you take
it, the stomach must be cleansed with some  pro-
per  vomit,  as that  of Mynficht's emetic  tarter
from four grains to six ; if for children, salt of vit-
riol, from a scruple to half a drachm. 
            Aristotle's master-piece.          139

          For a Head-ache of a long standing.
  Take the juice of powder or distilled water of
hoglice, and continue the use of it.

              For Spitting of Blood.
  Take conserve of comfrey and of hips  of each
an ounce and a half;  conserve of red roses, three
ounces ; dragon's blood, a drachm ; species of hya-
cinths, two scruples ; red coral, a  drachm; mix,
and with syrup of  red poppies make  a soft elec-
tuary.   Take  the quantity of a walnut, night and
morning.

                 For a Looseness.

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

                For the Bloody Flux.

  First take a drachm of powder of rhubarb, in a
sufficient  quantity of conserve of red roses, in the
morning early ; then at night, take  of torrified or
roasted rhubarb, half a drachm; diascordium, a
drachm and a half; liquid  laudanumcydomated, a
scruple ; mix, and make a  bolus.
          For an Inflammation of the Lungs.

  Take of charious  water, ten  ounces;  water of
red poppies, three ounces; syrup of poppies,  an
ounce ; pearl prepared, a drachm ;  make  a julep,
and take six spoonsful every fourth hour.
             An Ointment for the Pleurisy.

  Take oil of violets or sweet almonds, of each an
ounce, with wax and a little saffron make an oint-
ment,  warm  it and  bathe it upon the part  af-
fected. 
140
Aristotle's master-piece.
              An Ointment for the Itch.
   Take sulphur vive in powder, half an ounce, oil
 of tartar per deliquium a sufficient quantity, oint-
 ment of roses  four  ounces; make a liniment, to
 which add a scruple of rhodium to aromatize, and
 rub the parts affected with it.

                For a Running Scab.

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

               For Worms in Children.

  Take wormseed half a drachm, flour of sulphur
 a  drachm, salt-prunel half a drachm ; mix,  and
 make a powder. Give as much as will  lie on a sil-
 ver three-pence, night and morning,  in grocer's
 treacle or honey ; or to people grown up, you may
 add a sufficient quantity of aloe  rosatum, and so
 make them up into pills ; three or four maybe ta-
 ken every morning.

               For Fevers in Children.

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

    A Quieting Night-Draught when the cough is violent.

  Take water of green wheat six ounces,  syrup
diascordium  three ounces, take  two or   three
 spoonsful going to bed every night, or every other
night. 
Aristotle's  master-piece.
141
           An Electuary for the Dropsy.
  Take best  rhubarb  one drachm, gum lac pre-
pared two drachms,  zyloaloes, cinnamon,  long
birthwort, half an ounce each, best English saffron
half a scruple ; with sryup of chychory  and rhu-
barb make an electuary.   Take the quantity of a
nutmeg or small walnut, every  morning fasting.
              For a Tympany Dropsy.
  Take roots of chervil and candied eringo roots
half an ounce each, roots of butcher broom two
ounces, grass-roots three ounces, shaving of ivory
and hartshorn two drachms and a half each, bur-
dock seeds three drachms ; boil them in  two or
three pounds of spring water. While the strained
liquor  is hot, pour it  upon the leaves  of water-.
cresses and goose-grass bruised, of each a handful,
adding a pint of Rhenish wine.  Make a close  in-
fusion for  two hours,  then strain out the liquor
again, add to it three  ounces of magistral water
and earth worms, and  an  ounce and a half of the
syrup of the five opening roots. Make an apozem,
whereof take four ounces twice a-day.
              For an Inward Bleeding,
   Take leaves of plantain and stinging-nettles, of
each three handsful, bruise them  well,  and pour
on  them six  onuces of plantain  water, afterwards
make a strong expression,  and drink the  whole
off. Probatum est. 
GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS

         WORTHY OF NOTICE.
            WHEN YOU FIND

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

                THEN SAY,
            Ye have found a prodigy.

  Men acting contrary to the  common course of
nature.
END OF THE MASTER-PIECE. 
 
 
AW