ces, and they should last about three days:
and when the faculties of the body are weakened by their flow, we may
take it that the discharge is inordinate. In bodies which abound in
gross humours, this immoderate flow sometimes unburdens nature of her
load and ought not to be checked without a physician's advice.
CAUSE.
The cause is either internal or external. The internal cause is
threefold; in the substance, the instrument or the power. The matter,
which is the blood, may be vitiated in two ways; first, by the heat of
the constitution, climate or season, heating the blood, whereby the
passages are dilated, and the power weakened so that it cannot retain
the blood. Secondly, by falls, blows, violent motions, rupture of the
veins, etc. The external cause may be the heat of the air, heavy
burdens, unnatural childbirth, etc.
SIGNS.
In this excessive flow the appetite is lessened, conception is checked
and all the functions weakened; the feet swell, the colour of the face
changes, and the whole body is weakened. If the flow comes from the
rupture of a vein, the body is sometimes cold, the blood flows out in
streams, suddenly, and causes great pain. If it arises from heat, and
the orifice of the vein is dilated, there is little or no pain, but yet
the blood flows faster than it does when caused by erosion, but not so
fast as it does in a rupture. If caused by erosion, the woman feels a
scalding of the passage, and it differs from the other two, in so much
as it does not flow so quickly or so freely as they do. If it is caused
by weakness of the womb, the woman feels a dislike for sexual
intercourse. Lastly, if it proceeds from the defective quality of the
blood let some of it drop into a cloth, and when it is dry, you may
judge, of the quality by the colour. If it be passionate it will be
yellow; if melancholy, it will be black, and if phlegmatic, it will be
waterish and whitish.
PROGNOSTICS.
If convulsions are joined to the flow, it is dangerous, because that
intimates that the noble parts are affected, convulsions caused by
emptiness are deadly. If they continue long, they will be very difficult
to cure, and it was one of the miracles which our Saviour Christ
wrought, to cure a woman of this disease of twelve years standing.
To conclude, if the flow be excessive, many diseases will follow, which
will be almost impossible to cure; the blood, being consumed together
with the innate heat, either
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