The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher: Containing his Complete Masterpiece and Family Physician; his Experienced Midwife, his Book of Problems and his Remarks on Physiognomy
Philosophy
The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher: Containing his Complete Masterpiece and Family Physician; his Experienced Midwife, his Book of Problems and his Remarks on Physiognomy
Human beings; Mind and body; Reproduction
The place of conception is continually moist with the humours, the face
ill-coloured, the party loathes meat and breathes with difficulty, the
eyes are much swollen, which is sometimes without pain. If the offending
humour be pure blood, then you must let blood in the arm, and the
cephalic vein is fittest to draw back the blood; then let the juice of
plantain and comfrey be injected into the womb. If phlegm be a cause,
let cinnamon be a spice used in all her meats and drinks, and let her
take a little Venice treacle or mithridate every morning. Let her boil
burnet, mugwort, feverfew and vervain in all her broths. Also, half a
drachm of myrrh, taken every morning, is an excellent remedy against
this malady. If choler be the cause, let her take burrage, buglos, red
roses, endive and succory roots, lettuce and white poppy-seed, of each a
handful; boil these in white wine until one half be wasted; let her
drink half a pint every morning to which half pint add syrup of chicory
and syrup of peach-flowers, of each an ounce, with a little rhubarb, and
this will gently purge her. If it proceed from putrified blood, let her
be bled in the foot, and then strengthen the womb, as I have directed in
stopping the menstrua.
If barrenness be occasioned by the falling out of the womb, as sometimes
it happens, let her apply sweet scents to the nose, such as civet,
galbanum, storax, calamitis, wood of aloes; and such other things as
are of that nature; and let her lay stinking things to the womb, such as
asafoetida, oil of amber, or the smoke of her own hair, being burnt; for
this is a certain truth, that the womb flies from all stinking, and to
all sweet things. But the most infallible cure in this case is; take a
common burdock leaf (which you may keep dry, if you please, all the
year), apply this to her head and it will draw the womb upwards. In fits
of the mother, apply it to the soles of the feet, and it will draw the
womb downwards. But seed beaten into a powder, draws the womb which way
you please, accordingly as it is applied.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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