* * * * *

PROPER AND SAFE REMEDIES

FOR

CURING ALL THOSE DISTEMPERS

THAT ARE PECULIAR

TO THE FEMALE SEX

AND ESPECIALLY THOSE OBSERVATIONS

TO BEARING OF CHILDREN

* * * * *

BOOK II

* * * * *

Having finished the first part of this book, and wherein, I hope, amply made good my promise to the reader, I am now come to treat only of those distempers to which they are more subject when in a breeding condition, and those that keep them from being so; together with such proper and safe remedies as may be sufficient to repel them.  And since amongst all the diseases to which human nature is subject, there is none that more diametrically opposes the very end of our creation, and the design of nature in the formation of different sexes, and the power thereby given us for the work of generation, than that of sterility or barrenness which, where it prevails, renders the most accomplished midwife but a useless person, and destroys the design of our book; I think, therefore, that barrenness is an effect that deserves our first and principal consideration.

* * * * *

CHAPTER I

     Of Barrenness; its several Kinds; with the proper Remedies for it;
     and the Signs of Insufficiency both in Men and Women.

SECTION I.—­Of Barrenness in General.

Barrenness is either natural or artificial.

Natural barrenness is when a woman is barren, though the instruments of generation are perfect both in herself and in her husband, and no preposterous or diabolical course used to it, and neither age, nor disease, nor any defect hindering, and yet the woman remains naturally barren.

Now this may proceed from a natural cause, for if the man and woman be of one complexion, they seldom have children, and the reason is clear, for the universal course of nature being formed of a composition of contraries, cannot be increased by a composition of likes; and, therefore, if the constitution of the woman be hot and dry, as well as the man’s there can be no conception; and if, on the contrary, the man should be of a cold and moist constitution, as well as the woman, the effect would be the same; and this barrenness is purely natural.  The only way to help this is, for people, before they marry, to observe each others constitution and complexion, if they design to have children.  If their complexions and constitutions be alike, they are not fit to come together, for discordant natures only, make harmony in the work of generation.