atrimonial conjunction, and
such copulation as may prove satisfactory to her that is afflicted, for
then the menses will begin to flow according to their natural and due
course, and the humours being dispersed, will soon waste themselves; and
then no more matter being admitted to increase them, they will vanish
and a good temperament of body will return; but in case this best remedy
cannot be had soon enough, then let blood in the ankles, and if she be
about sixteen, you may likewise do it in the arm, but let her be bled
sparingly, especially if the blood be good. If the disease be of any
continuance, then it is to be eradicated by purging, preparation of the
humour being first considered, which may be done by the virgin's
drinking the decoction of guaiacum, with dittany of erete; but the best
purge in this case ought to be made of aloes, agaric, senna, rhubarb;
and for strengthening the bowels and removing obstructions, chaly-beate
medicines are chiefly to be used. The diet must be moderate, and sharp
things by all means avoided.

And now, since barrenness daily creates discontent, and that discontent
breeds indifference between man and wife, or, by immediate grief,
frequently casts the woman into one or another distemper, I shall in the
next place treat thereof.

OF BARRENNESS.

Formerly, before women came to the marriage-bed, they were first
searched by the mid-wife, and those only which she allowed of as
fruitful were admitted. I hope, therefore, it will not be amiss to show
you how they may prove themselves and turn barren ground into fruitful
soil. Barrenness is a deprivation of the life and power which ought to
be in the seed to procreate and propagate; for which end men and women
were made. Causes of barrenness may be over much cold or heat, drying up
the seed and corrupting it, which extinguishes the life of the seed,
making it waterish and unfit for generation. It may be caused also, by
the not flowing or over-flowing of the courses by swellings, ulcers, and
inflammation of the womb, by an excrescence of flesh growing about the
mouth of the matrix, by the mouth of the matrix being turned up to the
back or side by the fatness of the body, whereby the mouth of the matrix
is closed up, being pressed with the omentum or caul, and the matter of
the seed is turned to fat; if she be a lean and dry body, and though she
do conceive, yet the fruit of her body will wither before it come to
perfection, for want of