The internal cause is either instrumental or material, in the womb or in the blood. In the womb it may be divers ways; by imposthumes, humours, ulcers, by the narrowness of the veins and passages, or by the omentum, in fat bodies, pressing the neck of the matrix, but then they must have hernia, zirthilis, for in mankind the caul reacheth not so low; by overmuch cold or heat, the one vitiating the action, the other consuming the matter by an evil composition of the uterine parts, by the neck of the womb being turned aside, and sometimes, though rarely, by a membrane or excrescence of the flesh growing about the mouth or neck of the womb. The blood may be in fault two ways, in quantity or quality: in quantity, when it is so consumed that there is not a superplus left, as in viragos, or virile women, who, through their heat and strength of nature, digest and consume all in their last nourishment. The blood likewise may be consumed, and consequently the terms staid, by bleeding at the nose, by a flux of the hemorrhoids, by a dysentery, or bloody flux, by many other evacuations, and by continual and chronical diseases. Secondly, the matter may be vicious in quality; and suppose it to be sanguineous, phlegmatical, bilious, or melancholic; every one of these, if they offend in grossness, will cause an obstruction in the veins. _Signs._—Pains in the head, neck, back, and loins; weariness of the whole body, (but especially of the hips and legs, trembling of the heart.) If the suppression proceed from cold, she is heavy, sluggish, of a pale colour, and has a slow pulse; the urine curdles, the blood becomes waterish and much in quantity, and the excrements are retained. If of heat, the signs are contrary to those now recited. If the retention come of conception, this may be known by drinking of water and honey, after supper, going to bed, by the effect which it worketh; for if, after taking of it, she feels a beating pain upon the stomach, and the lower part of the belly, it is a sign she hath conceived, and that the suppression is natural; if not, then it is vicious, and ought medicinally to be taken away.