Take bay leaves, sage, hyssop, camomiles, and mugwort,
and make an infusion in water.
Take half a handful of wormwood and betony and half
a pint each of white wine and milk, boil them until
reduced to half; then take four ounces of this decoction
and make an injection, but you must be careful that
the humours are not brought down into the womb.
Take three drachms each of roast figs, and bruised
dog’s mercury; three drachms each of turpentine
and duck’s grease, and two grains of opium; make
a pessary with wax.
The room must be kept cool, and all motions of the
body, especially of the lower parts, must be prohibited.
Wakefulness is to be recommended, for humours are
carried inward by sleep, and thus inflammation is
increased. Eat sparingly, and drink only barley
water or clarified whey, and eat chickens and chicken
broth, boiled with endive, succory, sorrel, bugloss
and mallows.
* * * *
*
Of Scirrhous Tumours,
or Hardness of the Womb.
A scirrhus, or a hard unnatural swelling of
the matrix is generally produced by neglected, or
imperfectly cured phlegm, which, insensibly, hinders
the functions of the womb, and predisposes the whole
body to listlessness.
One cause of this disease may be ascribed to want
of judgment on the part of the physician, as many
empirics when attending to inflammation of the womb,
chill the humour so much that it can neither pass backward
nor forward, and hence, the matter being condensed,
turns into a hard, stony substance. Other causes
may be suppression of the menses, retention of the
Lochein, commonly called the after purging;
eating decayed meat, as in the disordered longing
after the pleia to which pregnant women are
often subject. It may, however, also proceed from
obstructions and ulcers in the matrix or from some
evil affections of the stomach or spleen.
If the bottom of the womb be affected, she feels,
as it were, a heavy burden representing a mole,[7]
yet differing from it, in that the breasts are attenuated,
and the whole body grows less. If the neck of
the womb be affected, no outward humours will appear;
its mouth is retracted and feels hard to the touch,
nor can the woman have sexual intercourse without
great pain.
Confirmed scirrhus is incurable, and will turn to
cancer or incurable dropsy, and when it ends in cancer
it proves fatal, because as the innate heat of these
parts is almost smothered, it can hardly be restored
again.
Where there is repletion, bleeding is advisable, therefore
open a vein in one arm and in both feet, more especially
if the menses are suppressed.
