The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher eBook

Treat the humours with syrup of borage, succory made with a poultice, and then take the following pills, according to the patient’s strength.

Hiera piera six drachms, two and a half drachms each of black hellebore and polypody; a drachm and a half each of agaric, lapis lazuli, sal Indiae, coloquintida, mix them and make two pills.  After purging, mollify the hardness as follows:—­the privy parts and the neck of the womb with an ointment of decalthea and agrippa; or take two drachms each of opopanax, bdellium, ammoniac and myrrh, and half a drachm of saffron; dissolve the gum in oil of lilies and sweet almond and make an ointment with wax and turpentine.  Apply diacatholicon ferellia below the navel, and make infusions of figs, mugwort, mallows, pennyroyal, althea, fennel roots, melilot, fenugreek and the four mollifying herbs, with oil of dill, camomiles and lilies dissolved in it.  Take three drachms of gum bdellium, put the stone pyrites on the coals, and let her take the fumes into her womb.  Foment the privy parts with a decoction of the roots and leaves of dane wort.  Take a drachm each of gum galbanum and opopanax, half an ounce each of juice of dane wort and mucilage of fenugreek, an ounce of calve’s marrow, and a sufficient quantity of wax, and make a pessary.  Or make a pessary of lead only, dip it in the above mentioned things, and put it up.

The atmosphere must be kept temperate, and gross and salt meats such as pork, bull beef, fish and old cheese, must be prohibited.

FOOTNOTES: 

[7] Mole:  “A somewhat shapeless, compact fleshy mass occurring in the uterus, due to the retention and continued life of the whole or a part of the foetal envelopes, after the death of the foetus (a maternal or true mole); or being some other body liable to be mistaken for this, or perhaps a polypus or false mole.” (Whitney’s Century Dictionary.)

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CHAPTER X

     Of Dropsy of the Womb.

Uterine dropsy is an unnatural swelling, caused by the collection of wind or phlegm in the cavity, membranes or substance of the womb, on account of the want of innate heat and of sufficient alimentation, and so it turns into an excrescence.  The causes are, too much cold and moisture of the milt and liver, immoderate drinking, eating insufficiently cooked meat, all of which by causing repletion, overpower the natural heat.  It may likewise be caused by undue menstruation, or by any other immoderate evacuation.  To these may be added abortions, subcutaneous inflammations and a hardened swelling of the womb.

SIGNS.