“Seminibus commisceri generaliter apta,
“Crassáq; conveniunt liquidis, & liquida crassis.
FOURTHLY and lastly, if the Nutritive Faculty be faulty, the Case is plain and manifest; since it generally proceeds from one or more of the following Causes, viz. from Want or Penury; a Pining away or Consumption; immoderate Hæmorrhagies, whether happening by Superiour or Inferiour Parts; hard Labour; too much Fat, or too much Leanness: As the same may also happen from an Obstruction or Suppression of the Menstruous Course; or from its vicious or impure Quality; and, in fine, from any severe Symptom or Disease whatsoever.
THUS having discover’d the genuine and precise Causes of Sterility, the Cure is as good as half perfected; but that it may be altogether and effectually perform’d, the next thing requisite in this place, would be to treat of every Cause and its respective Cure particularly;[[229]] but as these do chiefly belong to the Diseases of the Pudendum, Vagina, and Womb; which I have already declin’d entring upon at this time, for the Reasons mentioned in Sect. VI. Chap. VI. I shall here only add in general Terms, that tho’ the barren Womb is justly compar’d to an insipid, ungrateful, or unfruitful Field, because neither the one nor the other produces any thing Good of it self: Yet as we see the barren Lands emproved and become fruitful by the Industry of the Husband-Man; and even wild Roots and barren Trees in time produce plentifully by the Care and Diligence of the Gardener; So the Heavenly Art of Physick exerts it self strenuously in improving the barren Womb, miraculously supplying the Defects, and regularly correcting the Defaults of Nature; restoring or replenishing it with a desirable and grateful Fœcundity: I say, as convenient Dung comforts the sterile Field, so does proper Physick the barren Womb; It elevates the low and renovates the exhal’d Spirits; It vanquishes the Imbecility, and corroborates the Nerves; It reduces the languid Heat, and all the Intemperatures of the genital Parts, to their respective, due and natural Temperaments; removing naturally all Obstructions, and wonderfully curing all the Causes hindering or withstanding the Procreation of Humane Race.
AND, in fine, because proper Diet is of great Service to alter the elementary Qualities, and to convert the Bad into a Good Habit or Body; such Women are to be carefully directed to such a Judicious Regimen of Diet and otherways, as is most efficacious and convenient for their Purpose, either of Health or Generation. Now having so far prosecuted my Design, with respect to the Barren, as well as the Fruitful Woman; I, at present, take Leave of Both, and come, in the next place, to address my self to the Widow.
SECT. VIII.
