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.
* * * * *
CHAPTER IX
_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.
CAUSE.
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.
Pages:
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122