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 receptacles for the seed, divided by a line running through the midst of it. In the right side of the cavity, by reason of the heat of the liver, males are conceived; and in the left side, by the coldness of the spleen, females. 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.” Empedocles, in giving his opinion, says, “Such sometimes is in the power of the seed, that the male 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.
The menstruals are a monthly flux of excrementitious blood, which is to be understood of the surplus or redundance of it. For it is an excrement in quality, its quality being poor and corrupt, like unto the blood in the veins. This is proved two ways; first, from the final cause of the blood, which is the propagation and conservation 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, in the matrix, is nourished with the blood. And being out of the womb, it is still nourished with the same; for the milk is nothing but the menstruous blood made white in the breast. Secondly, it is proved to be true, from the generation of it, it being the superfluity of the last aliment of the fleshy part.
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 conception, 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 subject 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 upon her; for otherwise, if there were not a surplus of nourishment for the child, more than is convenient for the mother, then would the infant detract and weaken the principal parts of the mother, and like unto the viper, the generating of the infant would be the destruction of the parent.
The monthly purgations continue from the 15th year to the 46th or 50th; yet often there happens a suppression, which is either natural or morbical: they are naturally suppressed in breeding women, and such as give suck.
CHAPTER VII.
OF THE RETENTION OF THE MENSES.
The suppression of the terms is an interception of that accustomed evacuation of blood which every month comes from the matrix, proceeding 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 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 expelled. Or it may be caused by cold, making the blood vicious and gross, condensing and binding up the passages, that it cannot flow forth.
The internal cause is either instrumental or material, in the womb or in the blood. In the womb it may be divers ways; by imposthumes, humours, ulcers, by the narrowness of the veins and passages, or by the omentum, in fat bodies, pressing the neck of the matrix, but then they must have hernia, zirthilis, for in mankind the caul 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. 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, or bloody flux, by many other evacuations, and by continual and chronical diseases. Secondly, the matter may be vicious in quality; and suppose it to be sanguineous, phlegmatical, bilious, or melancholic; every one of these, if they offend in grossness, will cause an obstruction in the veins.
Signs.—Pains in the head, neck, back, and loins; weariness of the whole body, (but especially of the hips and legs, trembling of the heart.) If the suppression proceed from cold, she is heavy, sluggish, of a pale colour, and has a slow pulse; the urine curdles, the blood becomes waterish and much in quantity, and the excrements are retained. If of heat, the signs are contrary to those now recited. If the retention come of conception, this may be known by drinking of water and honey, after supper, going to bed, by the effect which it worketh; for if, after taking of it, she feels a beating pain upon the stomach, and the lower part of the belly, it is a sign she hath conceived, and that the suppression is natural; if not, then it is vicious, and ought medicinally to be taken away.
Prognostics.—With the 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 the heart by those arteries which come from the aorta. Hence, the terms being suppressed, will ensue faintings, swoonings, intermission of pulse, cessation of breath. Secondly, it communicates to the liver by the veins derived from the hollow vein. Hence will follow obstructions, jaundice, dropsies, hardness of spleen. Thirdly, it communicates to the brain by the nervous membrane of the back: hence will arise epilepsies, frenzies, melancholy passion, pain in the after parts of the head, fearfulness, and inability of speaking. Hippocrates says, if the months be suppressed, many dangerous diseases will follow.