You need
not fear to bind the navel-string very hard because it is void of sense,
and that part which you leave, falls off in a very few days, sometimes
in six or seven, or sooner, but never tarries longer than eight or nine.
When you have thus cut the navel-string, then take care the piece that
falls off touch not the ground, for the reason I told you Mizaldus gave,
which experience has justified.
(4) The last thing I mentioned, was the event or consequence, or what
follows cutting the navel-string. As soon as it is cut, apply a little
cotton or lint to the place to keep it warm, lest the cold enter into
the body of the child, which it most certainly will do, if you have not
bound it hard enough. If the lint or cotton you apply to it, be dipped
in oil of roses, it will be the better, and then put another small rag
three or four times double upon the belly; upon the top of all, put
another small bolster, and then swathe it with a linen swathe, four
fingers broad, to keep it steady, lest by moving too much, or from being
continually stirred from side to side, it comes to fall off before the
navel-string, which you left remaining, is fallen off.
It is the usual custom of midwives to put a piece of burnt rag to it,
which we commonly call tinder; but I would rather advise them to put a
little ammoniac to it, because of its drying qualities.
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