h of mugwort, feverfew, camomile
flowers and melilot, bruise the herbs and roots, and boil them in a
sufficient quantity of milk; then add two ounces each of fresh butter,
oil of camomiles and lilies, with a sufficient quantity of bran, make
two plasters, and apply one before and the other behind.

If the tumour cannot be removed, but seems inclined to suppurate, take
three drachms each of fenugreek, mallow roots, boiled figs, linseed,
barley meal, dove's dung and turpentine; half a drachm of deer's suet,
half a scruple of opium and make a plaster of wax.

Take bay leaves, sage, hyssop, camomiles, and mugwort, and make an
infusion in water.

Take half a handful of wormwood and betony and half a pint each of white
wine and milk, boil them until reduced to half; then take four ounces of
this decoction and make an injection, but you must be careful that the
humours are not brought down into the womb. Take three drachms each of
roast figs, and bruised dog's mercury; three drachms each of turpentine
and duck's grease, and two grains of opium; make a pessary with wax.

The room must be kept cool, and all motions of the body, especially of
the lower parts, must be prohibited. Wakefulness is to be recommended,
for humours are carried inward by sleep, and thus inflammation is
increased. Eat sparingly, and drink only barley water or clarified whey,
and eat chickens and chicken broth, boiled with endive, succory, sorrel,
bugloss and mallows.

* * * * *

CHAPTER IX

_Of Scirrhous Tumours, or Hardness of the Womb._

A _scirrhus_, or a hard unnatural swelling of the matrix is generally
produced by neglected, or imperfectly cured phlegm, which, insensibly,
hinders the functions of the womb, and predisposes the whole body to
listlessness.

CAUSE.

One cause of this disease may be ascribed to want of judgment on the
part of the physician, as many empirics when attending to inflammation
of the womb, chill the humour so much that it can neither pass backward
nor forward, and hence, the matter being condensed, turns into a hard,
stony substance. Other causes may be suppression of the menses,
retention of the _Lochein_, commonly called the after purging; eating
decayed meat, as in the disordered longing after the _pleia_ to which
pregnant women are often subject. It may, however, also proceed from
obstructions and ulcers in the matrix or from some evil affections of
the stomach or