one side, the liver and spleen cause it;
by the liver vein on the right side, and the spleen on the left, as they
are more or less filled. Others are of opinion, it comes from the
solution of the connexion of the fibrous neck and the parts adjacent;
and that it is from the weight of the womb descending; this we deny not,
but the ligaments must be loose or broken. But women with a dropsy could
not be said to have the womb fallen down, if it came only from
looseness; but in them it is caused by the saltness of the water, which
dries more than it moistens. Now, if there be a little tumour, within or
without the privities, it is nothing else but a descent of the womb, but
if there be a tumour like a goose's egg and a hole at the bottom and
there is at first a great pain in the parts to which the womb is
fastened, as the loins, the bottom of the belly, and the os sacrum, it
proceeds from the breaking or stretching of the ligaments; and a little
after the pain is abated, and there is an impediment in walking, and
sometimes blood comes from the breach of the vessels, and the excrements
and urine are stopped, and then a fever and convulsion ensueth,
oftentimes proving mortal, especially if it happen to women with child.

_Cure_. For the cure of this distemper, first put up the womb before the
air alter it, or it be swollen or inflamed; and for this purpose give a
clyster to remove the excrements, and lay her upon her back, with her
legs abroad, and her thighs lifted up and her head down; then take the
tumour in your hand and thrust it in without violence; if it be swelled
by alteration and cold, foment it with the decoction of mallows,
althoea, lime, fenugreek, camomile flowers, bay-berries, and anoint it
with oil of lilies, and hen's grease. If there be an inflammation, do
not put it up, but fright it in, by putting a red-hot iron before it
and making a show as if you intended to burn it; but first sprinkle upon
it the powder of mastich, frankincense and the like; thus, take
frankincense, mastich, each two drachms; sarcocol steeped in milk,
drachm; mummy, pomegranate flowers, sanguisdraconis, each half a drachm.
When it is put up, let her lie with her legs stretched, and one upon the
other, for eight or ten days, and make a pessary in the form of a pear,
with cork or sponge, and put it into the womb, dipped in sharp wine, or
juice of acacia, with powder of sanguis, with galbanum and bdellium.
Apply also a cupping-glass, with a