Aristotle's works: Containing the Master-piece, Directions for Midwives, and Counsel and Advice to Child-bearing Women with Various Useful Remedies

SECT. I. Of the Parts proper to a Child in the Womb. How it is formed there, and the Manner of its Situation therein 104 Of the Secundine, or After-Birth 107 SECT. II. Of the Fo...

A Guide for Women in Travail, shewing what is to be done when they Fall in Labour, in order to their Delivery 113 SECT. I. The Signs of the true Time of Woman’s Labour 114 SECT....

SECT. I. What Natural Labour is 123 SECT. II. Of the Cutting of the Child’s Navel-String 128 SECT. III. How to bring away the After-burden 130 SECT. IV. Of Laborious and Difficu...

Of Unnatural Labour 142 SECT. I. How to deliver a woman of a Dead Child, by Manual Operation 143 SECT. II. How a Woman must be Delivered, when the Child’s Feet come first 146 SE...

SECT. I. Of Gripes and Pains in the Bowels of young Children 171 SECT. II. Of Weakness in newly-born Infants 173 SECT. III. Of the Fundament being closed up in a newly-born Infa...

When we peruse the yearly returns which are furnished by the Registrar General of the marriages which have taken place in our own country, we are forcibly struck with the many f...

The Author of our being, when he formed the first pair of human beings, left them not to the mere instincts of nature, as he did in the case of the inferior animals; but for the...

Without doubt the uniting of hearts in holy wedlock is of all conditions the happiest; for then a man has a second self to whom he can reveal his thoughts, as well as a sweet co...

He that proposes to marry, and wishes to enjoy happiness in that state, should choose a wife descended from honest parents, she being chaste, well bred, and of good manners. For...

The pleasing anticipations of the wedded pair are sometimes disappointed and seriously blighted by the birth of a deformed and malformed offspring. Sometimes the child is born w...

Herein I propose to treat of the womb, and the various maladies to which it is subject. By the Grecians it is called metra, the mother; adelphos, says Priscian, because it makes...

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...

I shall now treat on the overflowing of the menses, an effect no less dangerous than the former. This immoderate flux is a sanguineous excrement, proceeding from the womb, excee...

The weeping of the womb is a flux of blood, unnaturally coming from thence by drops, after the manner of tears, causing violent pains, keeping neither period nor time. By some i...

_Cause._—The cause is either promiscuously in the whole body, by a cocochymia, or weakness of the same, or in some of the parts, as in the liver, which causeth a generation of c...

This is called in English, “the suffocation of the mother;” because it causeth the womb to be choked. It is a retraction of the womb towards the midriff and the stomach, which s...

The falling down of the womb is a relaxation of the ligature, whereby the matrix is carried backward, and in some hangs out the size of an egg. The falling of the womb is, when...

_Signs._—Anguish, pain in the head and stomach; vomiting, coldness of the knees, convulsion of the neck, trembling of the heart; a straitness of breath, by reason of the heat wh...

Of phlegm neglected, or not perfectly cured, is generated a schirrus of the matrix, which is a hard unnatural swelling, insensibly hindering the operation of the womb, and dispo...

The uterine dropsy is an unnatural swelling, by the gathering of the wind and phlegm in the cavity, membranes, or substance of the womb, by reason of the debility of the native...

This disease is called by the Greeks mole; and is taken from the load or heavy weight of it, it being a mole or great lump of hard flesh burdening the womb.

The natural instinct that nature has implanted in men and women to propagate their own species, puts them upon making use of those ways that nature has ordained for that end, wh...

When the fruit of the womb comes forth before the seventh month, before it comes to maturity, it is abortive; and, in effect, the child proves abortive in the eighth month. And...

Before conception, if the body be over hot, dry, or moist, correct it with the contraries; if couchmical, purge it; if plethoric, open the liver vein; if too gross, attenuate it...

The time of birth drawing near, let her send for a skilful medical man or midwife; let her prepare a bed or couch, and place it near the fire, that the midwife and assistants ma...

The woman being across the bed, let the operator put up his or her hand, if the neck of the womb be dilated, and remove the contracted blood that obstructs the passage of the bi...

In this Chapter I am to treat of the womb, which the Latins call matrix. Its parts are two; the mouth of the womb, and the bottom of it. The mouth is an orifice at the entrance...

Conception is nothing else but an action of the womb, by which the prolific seed is received and retained, that an infant may be engendered and formed out of it. There are two s...

In the last chapter I treated of conception, showing what it was, how accomplished, its signs, and how she who has conceived ought to order herself during the time of her pregna...

There are four things which denominate a woman’s natural labour; the first, that it be at the full time; for, if a woman comes before her time, it cannot be termed natural labou...

In showing the duty of a midwife, when the child-bearing woman’s labour is unnatural, it will be requisite to show, in the first place, what I mean by unnatural labour; for that...

As soon as she is laid in her bed, let her be placed in it conveniently for ease and rest, which she stands in great need of, to recover herself of the great fatigue she underwe...

When the child’s navel-string hath been cut, according to the rules prescribed, let the midwife presently cleanse it from the excrements and filth it brings with it; of which so...

This I mention first, as it is often the first and most common distemper which happens to little infants after their birth; many children being so troubled therewith, that it ca...

I have already said, that the womb is the field of generation; and if this field be corrupted, it is vain to expect any fruit, though it be ever so well sown. It is therefore no...

That divine Providence, which with a wisdom peculiar to itself has appointed woman to conceive, and to bear and bring forth children, has provided for the nourishment of childre...

Physiognomy is an ingenious science, or knowledge of nature, by. which the inclinations and dispositions of every creature are understood, and because some of the members are un...

Hair that hangs down without curling, if it be of a fair complexion, thin and soft withal, signifies a man to be naturally faint-hearted, and of a weak body, but of a quiet and...

In the body of man, the head and face are the principal parts, being the index which heaven has laid open to every one’s view to make a judgment therefrom, therefore I have been...

Being engaged in this part of the work to show what judgment may be drawn according to physiognomy, from the several parts of the body, and coming in order to speak of the hands...

A large and full breast shows a man valiant and courageous, but withal proud and hard to deal with, quickly angry, and very apprehensive of an injury: he whose breast is narrow,...

Having spoken thus largely of Physiognomy, and the judgments given thereby concerning the dispositions and inclinations of men and women, drawn by the said art, from every part...