ich
with the rest is offended by [2651]that fuliginous exhalation of corrupt
seed, troubling the brain, heart and mind; the brain, I say, not in
essence, but by consent, _Universa enim hujus affectus causa ab utero
pendet, et a sanguinis menstrui malitia_, for in a word, the whole malady
proceeds from that inflammation, putridity, black smoky vapours, &c., from
thence comes care, sorrow, and anxiety, obfuscation of spirits, agony,
desperation, and the like, which are intended or remitted; _si amatorius
accesserit ardor_, or any other violent object or perturbation of mind.
This melancholy may happen to widows, with much care and sorrow, as
frequently it doth, by reason of a sudden alteration of their accustomed
course of life, &c. To such as lie in childbed _ob suppressam
purgationem_; but to nuns and more ancient maids, and some barren women for
the causes abovesaid, 'tis more familiar, _crebrius his quam reliquis
accidit, inquit Rodericus_, the rest are not altogether excluded.

Out of these causes Rodericus defines it with Areteus, to be _angorem
animi_, a vexation of the mind, a sudden sorrow from a small, light, or no
occasion, [2652]with a kind of still dotage and grief of some part or
other, head, heart, breasts, sides, back, belly, &c., with much
solitariness, weeping, distraction, &c., from which they are sometimes
suddenly delivered, because it comes and goes by fits, and is not so
permanent as other melancholy.

But to leave this brief description, the most ordinary symptoms be these,
_pulsatio juxta dorsum_, a beating about the back, which is almost
perpetual, the skin is many times rough, squalid, especially, as Areteus
observes, about the arms, knees, and knuckles. The midriff and
heart-strings do burn and beat very fearfully, and when this vapour or fume
is stirred, flieth upward, the heart itself beats, is sore grieved, and
faints, _fauces siccitate praecluduntur, ut difficulter possit ab uteri
strangulatione decerni_, like fits of the mother, _Alvus plerisque nil
reddit, aliis exiguum, acre, biliosum, lotium flavum_. They complain many
times, saith Mercatus, of a great pain in their heads, about their hearts,
and hypochondries, and so likewise in their breasts, which are often sore,
sometimes ready to swoon, their faces are inflamed, and red, they are dry,
thirsty, suddenly hot, much troubled with wind, cannot sleep, &c. And from
hence proceed _ferina deliramenta_, a brutish kind of dotage, troublesome