AS Sterility is in it self a Præternatural Faculty, so I cannot but think, that, in the Class of Præternatural Conceptions, that of a NON-CONCEPTION may at last pertinently take place.
NOW I remember the Reader was referred to this Place, by Sect. II. Chap. 5. where I promised to expound the unsuccessful Act of Copulation; as I there briefly did the Reverse-Case: And after having all a long thus far forward, safely conducted the Fertile or Fruitful Woman, thro’ the different Trains and Consequences of the successful Act, I have left Her in a safe Condition, together with the Dear Pledge of her Natural Fœcundity; whilst in the next place, I come now to treat of the Præternatural BARREN WOMAN.
IN order to which, I First observe, that the Jews, and almost all other Nations, deemed it the greatest Mark of Infamy imaginable, for a Woman, to yield no Children; as is evident from the Scriptures, how Hagar, the fruitful Chamber-Maid,[219] despised Sarah, her barren Mistress, &c. But moreover——
SECONDLY, We may observe, that, upon every provoking Occasion, the Lord himself threatned them with this Curse; as one of the greatest Instances of his heavy Displeasure, and One of the severest Judgments, that his VENGEANCE could inflict on them for their Sins, as is also manifest from repeated Instances of Scripture, particularly from the Words of the Holy Prophet, saying,[220] They sowe the Wind, and shall reap the Whirlwind: Their Glory shall fly away from the WOMB: Their Root is dryed up, they shall bear no Fruit, &c.
THIRDLY, We may easily conclude that, such a Sentence passing from the Mouth of the most high JUDGE, the Supreme Physician, and Omnipotent himself, could never be revers’d by the Art or Ingenuity of Man: But as Christians have no Reason to suspect themselves to lay under this accursed Sentence, so they may well look nearer Home, and take a view of the many different mediate and immediate Causes of STERILITY or NON-CONCEPTION in them.
FOURTHLY, however, before I enter upon these, I would previously have it noted, that, sometimes the Fault, or Cause of the Woman’s not conceiving, lies in the Man; and may proceed from many diverse Diseases or Symptoms in him, as particularly mentioned, and treated of at large,[221] by the most Learned Senertus, to which we refer the Curious; Because we have nothing to do with the Man in this place: Wherefore that I may return to the Woman, I say——
THE immediate Causes of STERILITY in her, are manifest from the very Definition of CONCEPTION: Which, according to Galen,[222] is nothing else, than a Comprehension of SEED in the Womb, for the Generation of Man. But here it may be requisite, to explain this general Term of Comprehension, which I would have understood to imply four particular Qualities of the Womb, viz. Attraction, Retention, Distribution, and Fomentation. Hence it is that such Women must needs be Barren, as cannot either attract the effused; or retain the attracted; or distribute and alterate the retain’d SEED through the Parts of the Womb, and excite its latent Virtue to Action; or lastly, such as cannot duly foment and nourish the same SEED, when regularly distributed; and These, I think, are all the immediate Causes of BARRENNESS: As Those, for which the SEED either cannot be attracted, or retained, or distributed, or fomented, are the mediate Causes of STERILITY.
NOW, as to the First of These then, the Attraction, or the attractive Faculty, may fail in its Duty two ways, viz. either because of its own Debility; or because of some præternatural Impediment. The Debility or Imbecility of this Faculty may proceed either from a Defect of Spirits in the Seminal Vessels; or from either of the Intemperatures of the Womb, whether Natural or Adventitious: And Impediments may happen in Attraction many different ways, such as by a læs’d or extinct Venereal Appetite; by the Woman’s Aversion or Indifference to her MATE; by the perverse Affections of the Mind, such as Melancholy, Grief, Anger, Fear, &c. by Causes of the Vagina, or Orifice of the Womb; by a Coalescence, Ulcer, Membrane, Carnous or Scirrhous Substance, or any other kind of Tumours; as also by a Constriction, Distortion, or Compression of the ORIFICE; or at last by too much Fat, &c.[223]
SECONDLY, the Retentive Faculty may come short of its Duty three different ways; namely, either because of its own Imbecillity, or because of some Præternatural Impediments; or because of the Object it self. The Imbecillity or Impotency of this Faculty may proceed either from the Intemperature of the Womb; or from the Abundance of some slimy Mucous Humour in the same: And its Impediments may happen from a Prolapsus, an Inflammation, an immoderate Flux, the Whites, a Gonorrhæa, Worms, Scirrhous, or other Tumours, Ulcers, or the Cicatrix of an old Sore in the Body of the Womb; as also from the Amplitude or Laxity of the Orifice, whether Natural or Adventitious: Which Accident frequently happens even to Child-bearing Women, sometimes by an Abortion, sometimes by a difficult Birth, and sometimes also by the rude Usage of an ignorant Midwife, that they can never more Conceive, until they be duly Cured: Again, the Cause may be in the Object, or Seed it self; when it is either impure, acrid, vitious, and disagreeable to the Womb; or deprived of its natural Heat and Spirits.
THIRDLY, the Distributive or Alterative Faculty may be also impugned in its Function, 1st, by its own Debility, occasion’d by either of the Diseases, or Intemperatures above-mentioned; or 2dly, by the discording Qualities of the Seminal Matter; or 3dly, by some certain Disproportion betwixt that Matter and the Womb it self: Since as all Seeds do not answer alike in one Field, some requiring a Pinguid and Loose Soil, others a Lean and Slender Ground; so it is with the Womb and the injected SEED: For, however fruitful the One may be, if the other be not of a proportionable Fœcundity, no CONCEPTION can possibly follow: Hence it is that many Women have been accounted BARREN in their first Marriage, who have had several Children to a second Husband. Again, as some SEEDS perish and are quite lost in moist, clayish, or marshy Ground, and others decay and are burnt up in an Acrid, Sandy, or Gravelly Field; So it is also with the Human SEED: For, in the too cold, or moist Womb, it is extinguished, and in the too Hot or Dry Womb it is corrupted[224].
FOURTHLY, the Fomentation, or the Nutritive Faculty may be deficient in its Office of attracting sufficient Aliment to foment and nourish the Seed; which however, is most commonly occasion’d by Want, or Scarcity of Blood in the Womb, proceeding from perverse Evacuations, Penury or Necessity, an Atrophia, Consumption, or the like, or then, in fine, by the Impurity, or vicious quality of the Blood.
NOW These, I think, are all the most common, as well as the most prevalent Causes of Sterility: Tho’, according to Johannes Anglicus, there are also several external Causes[225]; which however, I shall here pass by in Silence; lest, as some good Women are at great Pains to rectify their barren Wombs, others should thereby take Sinistrous Measures to suppress their Fertility. And in this Class may be included the Medicines call’d by the Greeks φθόυα, because they are endued with certain occult Qualities, which extinguish the SEED and obstruct the CONCEPTION[226].
HAVING thus defin’d the mediate and immediate Causes of reputed Sterility, I can scarce, because of either of these, call a Woman really Barren; Since I have known some of the most difficult of these Cases to have been duly cur’d, and diverse Women to have conceiv’d, after many Years BARRENNESS, and prov’d the Joyful Mothers of hopeful Children; of which I could give some signal Instances, if I took Pleasure in swelling this Work: Hence it is, that the great Philosopher and Physician, Daniel Senertus, only disswades the Ingenuous from undertaking this Cure, in the Cases of vicious Hereditary Dispositions, venenated Constitutions, or other heavy Diseases[227].
MOREOVER, we find that the very best of the Ancients have been at great Pains, in distinguishing exactly the curable, from the incurable Barren Womb: Yea Hippocrates, Galen, &c. have given certain Directions, founded upon the solid Truths of their Immense Knowledge and Heavenly Wisdom, to try and discover the One from the Other; as they have also taught us to Judge of every particular Cause affecting the Curable Womb. But to facilitate these Nice Discoveries, I shall subjoin some few Diagnostick Signs; because except we know the particular Cause, we can never pretend to remove it, and without removing the Cause, the Effect can never cease, or be cured. Not but that——
I KNOW, that the ingenious Physician, undertaking this Cure, requires none of my Instructions; which notwithstanding, I hope, He will allow me to prosecute my Method in treating of this Case, as I have done of some others; and that the rather, considering it is generally well known, that sometimes a Fool has put a Wise Man in the right way. Wherefore I heartily wish that some Word may drop from my Pen, that may prove instrumental to wipe off the imputed Blemishes, and promote the real Glory of Women; And this I could wish the more, because I am fully convinced that many are ignominiously branded with BARRENNESS, without any sufficient Cause: Insomuch, that I verily believe, that, upon an ingenuous Tryal, not one real or incurable BARREN WOMB, would be found in Ten of those, which are this Day so reputed. But à propos——
As I have reduced all the Causes of STERILITY to the above said four CLASSES, so I shall reduce the Diagnosticks to the same number; and thereby demonstrate how it may be easily discover’d, whether the Fault lies in the Attractive, Retentive, Alterative, or in the Nutritive Faculty of the Womb; and how every particular Cause in any of these may be plainly distinguished, &c. In order to which, then—
TOUCHING the First, inquirendum est primò, an ad Venerem apta sit Fæmina, & quidem an Veneris Appetitum habeat, & an Membrum virile rectè admittere possit. Horum enim si alterum desit, Causa, cur non concipiat, procul dubio in Attractrice hæret; ut etiam, si statim à Coitu, aut post breve Intervallum semen effluat. I say, These are the infallible Marks of a læs’d Attractive Power, which also denote some Fault of the Womb, such as an oblique Situation, a Compression of the Epiploon or Cawl, or some obdurated Substance, impeding the SEED to reach the Cavity of the Womb: The Particular of which is easily to be discover’d; the Situation by the ingenious Touch; the Compression of the Omentum or Epiploon happens only to Fat Women; the Substance or Tumour (of whatsoever kind) if not found in the Passage, lodges in the Womb it self.
SECONDLY, If the Party labours under any of the aforesaid Causes debilitating or impeding the Retentive Power; some are manifest to the Woman her self; as in the Cases of any immoderate Flux, a slimy or illuvious Evacuation, a Gonorrhæa, the Whites, a Falling of the Womb, &c. others are obvious to the Midwife’s Touch, as in the Case of Tumours, Ulcers, &c. and in Case of either Intemperature, Dropsy, Inflammation, Worms, &c. all such are abundantly evident to the Physician, after duly examining, and considerately weighing the Disposition or Temperature of the whole Body in general, and of the Womb in particular.
THIRDLY, if the Alterative or altering Faculty be læs’d or impotent, then, after some Days Retention, an Effluxion of the SEED happens, and that either because of some Intemperature of the Womb; or of some discording Quality in the SEEDS, or in the Womb, as above; or lastly, because of a Want or Scarcity of Blood for forming the FOETUS. As to the Intemperatures, I have already observ’d, that, they may be readily distinguished by the ingenious Physician; But the Disproportion betwixt the commixed SEEDS, or between these and the Womb, how much, and in what they may differ one from another, is not so easily known; because this Fault may be as much in the Man, or perhaps more, than in the Woman, as has been already hinted: In this Case, the Physician is to weigh and consider well the Temperatures of the whole Body, and especially that of the Genital Parts of both the Man and the Wife; and as much as possible, to reduce that of the One, to the more convenient Temperature of the Other,[228] correcting Both in what may be found requisite; according to the Direction of Lucretius, in these Verses:
FOURTHLY and lastly, if the Nutritive Faculty be faulty, the Case is plain and manifest; since it generally proceeds from one or more of the following Causes, viz. from Want or Penury; a Pining away or Consumption; immoderate Hæmorrhagies, whether happening by Superiour or Inferiour Parts; hard Labour; too much Fat, or too much Leanness: As the same may also happen from an Obstruction or Suppression of the Menstruous Course; or from its vicious or impure Quality; and, in fine, from any severe Symptom or Disease whatsoever.
THUS having discover’d the genuine and precise Causes of Sterility, the Cure is as good as half perfected; but that it may be altogether and effectually perform’d, the next thing requisite in this place, would be to treat of every Cause and its respective Cure particularly;[229] but as these do chiefly belong to the Diseases of the Pudendum, Vagina, and Womb; which I have already declin’d entring upon at this time, for the Reasons mentioned in Sect. VI. Chap. VI. I shall here only add in general Terms, that tho’ the barren Womb is justly compar’d to an insipid, ungrateful, or unfruitful Field, because neither the one nor the other produces any thing Good of it self: Yet as we see the barren Lands emproved and become fruitful by the Industry of the Husband-Man; and even wild Roots and barren Trees in time produce plentifully by the Care and Diligence of the Gardener; So the Heavenly Art of Physick exerts it self strenuously in improving the barren Womb, miraculously supplying the Defects, and regularly correcting the Defaults of Nature; restoring or replenishing it with a desirable and grateful Fœcundity: I say, as convenient Dung comforts the sterile Field, so does proper Physick the barren Womb; It elevates the low and renovates the exhal’d Spirits; It vanquishes the Imbecility, and corroborates the Nerves; It reduces the languid Heat, and all the Intemperatures of the genital Parts, to their respective, due and natural Temperaments; removing naturally all Obstructions, and wonderfully curing all the Causes hindering or withstanding the Procreation of Humane Race.
AND, in fine, because proper Diet is of great Service to alter the elementary Qualities, and to convert the Bad into a Good Habit or Body; such Women are to be carefully directed to such a Judicious Regimen of Diet and otherways, as is most efficacious and convenient for their Purpose, either of Health or Generation. Now having so far prosecuted my Design, with respect to the Barren, as well as the Fruitful Woman; I, at present, take Leave of Both, and come, in the next place, to address my self to the Widow.