The natural end of man and woman’s being is to propagate; and this injunction was imposed upon them by God at their first creation, and again after the deluge. Now, in the act of conception, there must be an agent and patient; for if they be both every way of one constitution, they cannot propagate: man therefore is hot and dry, woman cold and moist; he is the agent, she the patient or weaker vessel, that she should be subject to the office of the man. It is necessary the woman should be of a cold constitution, because in her is required a redundancy of nature for the infant depending upon her; for otherwise, if there were not a surplus of nourishment for the child, more than is convenient for the mother, then would the infant detract and weaken the principal parts of the mother, and like unto the viper, the generating of the infant would be the destruction of the parent. The monthly purgations continue from the 15th year to the 46th or 50th; yet often there happens a suppression, which is either natural or morbical: they are naturally suppressed in breeding women, and such as give suck. CHAPTER VII. OF THE RETENTION OF THE MENSES. The suppression of the terms is an interception of that accustomed evacuation of blood which every month comes from the matrix, proceeding from the instrument or matter vitiated. The part affected is the womb, and that of itself or by consent. _Cause._—The cause of this suppression is either external or internal. The external cause may be heat, or dryness of air, immoderate watching, great labour, vehement motion, &c. whereby the matter is so consumed and the body so exhausted, that there is not a surplus remaining to be expelled. Or it may be caused by cold, making the blood vicious and gross, condensing and binding up the passages, that it cannot flow forth.