ciency or Barrenness in Women._

Although there are many causes of the barrenness of women, yet the chief
and principal are internal, respecting either the privy parts, the womb
or menstruous blood.

Therefore, Hippocrates saith (speaking as well of easy as difficult
conception in women) the first consideration is to be had of their
species; for little women are more apt to conceive than great, slender
than gross, white and fair than ruddy and high coloured, black than wan,
those that have their veins conspicuous, than others; but to be very
fleshy is evil, and to have great swelled breasts is good.

The next thing to be considered is, the monthly purgations, whether they
have been duly every month, whether they flow plentifully, are of a good
colour, and whether they have been equal every month.

Then the womb, or place of conception, is to be considered. It ought to
be clean and sound, dry and soft, not retracted or drawn up; not prone
or descending downward; nor the mouth thereof turned away, nor too
close shut up. But to speak more particularly:--

The first parts to be spoken of are the _pudenda_, or privities, and the
womb; which parts are shut and enclosed either by nature or against
nature; and from hence, such women are called _imperforate_; as in some
women the mouth of their womb continues compressed, or closed up, from
the time of their birth until the coming down of their courses, and
then, on a sudden, when their terms press forward to purgation, they are
molested with great and unusual pains. Sometimes these break of their
own accord, others are dissected and opened by physicians; others never
break at all, which bring on disorders that end in death.

All these _Aetius_ particularly handles, showing that the womb is shut
three manner of ways, which hinders conception. And the first is when
the _pudenda_ grow and cleave together. The second is, when these
certain membranes grow in the middle part of the matrix within. The
third is, when (though the lips and bosom of the _pudenda_ may appear
fair and open), the mouth of the womb may be quite shut up. All which
are occasions of barrenness, as they hinder the intercourse with man,
the monthly courses, and conception.

But amongst all causes of barrenness in women, the greatest is in the
womb, which is the field of generation; and if this field is corrupt, it
is in vain to expect any fruit, be it ever so well sown. It may be unfit
for generation by reas