To which purpose, let her use baths of iron water, that
correct the distemper of the bowels, and then evacuate. If it proceeds
from the retentive faculty, and looseness of the vessels, it is to be
corrected with gentle astringents.
As to the courses flowing after the usual time, the causes are,
thickness of the blood, and the smallness of its quantity, with the
stoutness of the passage, and weakness of the expulsive faculties.
Either of these singly may stop the courses, but if they all concur,
they render the distemper worse. If the blood abounds not in such a
quantity as may stir up nature to expel it, its purging must necessarily
be deferred, till there be enough. And if the blood be thick, the
passage stopped, and the expulsive faculty weak, the menses must needs
be out of order and the purging of them retarded.
For the cure of this, if the quantity of blood be small, let her use a
larger diet, and a very little exercise. If the blood be thick and foul,
let it be made thin, and the humours mixed therewith, evacuated. It is
good to purge, after the courses have done flowing, and to use calamint,
and, indeed, the oftener she purges, the better. She may also use fumes
and pessaries, apply cupping glasses without scarification to the inside
of the thighs, and rub the legs and scarify the ankles, and hold the
feet in warm water four or five days before the courses come down.
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