The next thing to be considered is, the monthly purgations, whether they
have been duly every month, whether they flow plentifully, are of a good
colour, and whether they have been equal every month.
Then the womb, or place of conception, is to be considered. It ought to
be clean and sound, dry and soft, not retracted or drawn up; not prone
or descending downward; nor the mouth thereof turned away, nor too
close shut up. But to speak more particularly:--
The first parts to be spoken of are the _pudenda_, or privities, and the
womb; which parts are shut and enclosed either by nature or against
nature; and from hence, such women are called _imperforate_; as in some
women the mouth of their womb continues compressed, or closed up, from
the time of their birth until the coming down of their courses, and
then, on a sudden, when their terms press forward to purgation, they are
molested with great and unusual pains. Sometimes these break of their
own accord, others are dissected and opened by physicians; others never
break at all, which bring on disorders that end in death.
All these _Aetius_ particularly handles, showing that the womb is shut
three manner of ways, which hinders conception. And the first is when
the _pudenda_ grow and cleave together. The second is, when these
certain membranes grow in the middle part of the matrix within.
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