Gluttony, drunkenness, and other excesses, do so much hinder men from fruitfulness, that it makes them unfit for generation.
But among other causes of barrenness of men, this also is one, and makes them almost of the nature of eunuchs, and that is the incision or the cutting of the veins behind their ears, which in case of distempers is oftentimes done; for, according to the opinions of most physicians and anatomists, the seed flows from the brain by those veins behind the ears, more than any part of the body. From whence it is very probable, that the transmission of the seed is hindered
by the cutting of the veins behind the ears, so that it cannot descend to the testicles, or may come thither very crude and raw.
SECT. III.—Signs and Causes of Insufficiency or Barrenness in Women.
Although there are many causes of the barrenness of women, yet the chief and principal are internal, respecting either the privy parts, the womb or menstruous blood.
Therefore, Hippocrates saith (speaking as well of easy as difficult conception in women) the first consideration is to be had of their species; for little women are more apt to conceive than great, slender than gross, white and fair than ruddy and high coloured, black than wan, those that have their veins conspicuous, than others; but to be very fleshy is evil, and to have great swelled breasts is good.
The next thing to be considered is, the monthly purgations, whether they have been duly every month, whether they flow plentifully, are of a good colour, and whether they have been equal every month.
Then the womb, or place of conception, is to be considered. It ought to be clean and sound, dry and soft, not retracted or drawn up; not prone or descending downward; nor the mouth
thereof turned away, nor too close shut up. But to speak more particularly:—
The first parts to be spoken of are the pudenda, or privities, and the womb; which parts are shut and enclosed either by nature or against nature; and from hence, such women are called imperforate; as in some women the mouth of their womb continues compressed, or closed up, from the time of their birth until the coming down of their courses, and then, on a sudden, when their terms press forward to purgation, they are molested with great and unusual pains. Sometimes these break of their own accord, others are dissected and opened by physicians; others never break at all, which bring on disorders that end in death.