The passiue condition of womankind is subiect vnto more diseases and of other[1] sortes and natures then men are: and especially in regarde of that part[2] from whence this disease which we speake of doth arise. For as it hath more varietie of[3] offices belonging vnto it then other partes of the bodie haue, and accordingly is supplied from other partes with whatsoeuer it hath need of for those vses: so it must needes thereby be subiect vnto mo infirmities then other parts are: both by reason of such as are bred in the part it selfe, and also by reason of such as are communicated vnto it from other parts, with which it hath correspondence. And as those offices in their proper kindes are more excellent then other; so the diseases whereby they are hurt or depraued, are more grieuous. But amongest all the diseases wherevnto that sex is obnoxious, there is none comparable vnto this which is called _The Suffocation of the mother_, either for varietie, or for strangenesse of accidents. For whatsoeuer straunge accident may appeare in any of the principall functions of mans bodie, either animall, vitall, or naturall, the same is to bee seene in this disease, by reason of the communitie and consent which this part hath with the braine, heart, and liuer, the principall seates of these three functions; and the easie passage which it hath vnto them by the Vaines, Arteries, and Nerues. And whatsoeuer humor in other partes may cause extraordinarie affects, by reason of the abundance or corruption of it, this part will affoord the like in as plentifull a manner, and in as high a degree of corruption: and with this aduauntage that whereas in the other, some one or two of the faculties onely one are hurt (as in _Apoplexies_, _Epilepsyes_, _Syncopyes_, subuersions of the stomacke, &c.) and not all (vnlesse as in _Syncopyes_ by consent, where the vitall function ceasing, all the rest must needes cease) in this case all the faculties of the bodie doe suffer; not as one may do from another, but all directly from this one fountaine, in such sort as you shall often tymes perceyue in one and the same person diuerse accidents of contrarie natures to concurre at once. [1] _Hyppocras. 6 vulgar. part. 7._ [2] _Galen 6. locorum affect. cap. 5. radix suffocationum vterus._ [3] _Mercatus de muliebr. lib. 2, cap. 1._ 1. _Ad sui ipsius alimontam._ 2. _Ad species propagationem_. 3. _Ad beneficium indiuidui per euacuationẽ superfluitatum._ [Sidenote: Valetius scoffing at their ignorance calleth this disease a kind of diuell. _in Holler. cap. 59_.]