Some also take garlic and
beer, and cause the woman to lie upon her back upon it, and if she feel
the scent thereof in her nose, it is a sign of her being fruitful.
Culpepper and others also give a great deal of credit to the following
experiment. Take a handful of barley, and steep half of it in the urine
of a man, and the other half in the urine of the woman, for the space of
twenty-four hours; then take it out, and put the man's by itself, and
the woman's by itself; set it in a flower-pot, or some other thing,
where let it dry; water the man's every morning with his own urine, and
the woman's with hers, and that which grows first is the most fruitful;
but if they grow not at all, they are both naturally barren.
_Cure_. If the barrenness proceeds from stoppage of the menstrua, let
the woman sweat, for that opens the parts; and the best way to sweat is
in a hot-house. Then let the womb be strengthened by drinking a draught
of white wine, wherein a handful of stinking arrach, first bruised, has
been boiled, for by a secret magnetic virtue, it strengthens the womb,
and by a sympathetic quality, removes any disease thereof. To which add
also a handful of vervain, which is very good to strengthen both the
womb and the head, which are commonly afflicted together by sympathy.
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