It is of a figure almost round, inclining somewhat to an oblong, in part resembling a pear; for, being broad at the bottom, it gradually terminates in the point of the orifice, which is narrow. The length, breadth, and thickness of the womb differ according to the age and the disposition of the body. For in virgins not ripe it is very small in all its dimensions; but, in women whose terms flow in great quantities, it is much larger; and if they have had children, it is larger in them than in such as have had none; but, in women of a good stature, and well shaped, it is, (as I have said before), from the entry of the privy parts to the bottom of the womb, usually about eight inches; but the length of the body of the womb alone does not exceed three; the breadth thereof is near about the same, and of the thickness of the little finger, when the womb is not pregnant; but, when the woman is pregnant, it becomes of a prodigious greatness, and the nearer she is to her delivery the more is the womb extended. It is not without reason, then, that nature (or the God of Nature) has made the womb of a membranous substance; for thereby it does the easier conceive, is gradually dilated by the growth of the fœtus, or young one, and is afterwards contracted and closed again, to thrust forth both it and the after-burden, and it is to retire to its primitive seat. Hence also then enabled to expel any obnoxious humours which may sometimes happen to be contained within it. Before I have done with the womb, which is the field of generation, and ought therefore to be the more particularly taken care of, I shall proceed to a more particular description of its parts, and the uses for which nature hath designed them. The womb then is composed of various similar parts, that is, of membranes, veins, arteries, and nerves. Its membranes are two, and they compose the principal parts of the body; the outermost of which ariseth from the peritoneum, or caul, and is very thin; without smooth, and within equal, that it may the better cleave to the womb, as it is fleshier and thicker than anything else we meet with in the body when the woman is not pregnant, and is interwoven with all sorts of fibres and small strings, that it may the better suffer the extension of the child and the waters caused during pregnancy, and also that it may the easier close again after delivery.