2.  Give a lying-in woman, immediately after delivery, oil of sweet almonds and syrup of maiden-hair mixed together.  Some prefer oil of walnuts, provided it be made of nuts that are very good; but it tastes worse than the other at best.  This will lenify the inside of the intestines by its unctuousness, and by that means bring away that which is contained in them more easily.

3.  Take and boil onions well in water, then stamp them with oil of cinnamon, spread them on a cloth, and apply them to the region of the womb.

4.  Let her be careful to keep her belly warm, and not to drink what is too cold; and if the pain prove violent, hot cloths from time to time must be laid on her belly, or a pancake fried in walnut oil may be applied to it, without swathing her belly too strait.  And for the better evacuating the wind out of the intestines, give her a clyster, which may be repeated as often as necessity requires.

5.  Take bay-berries, beat them to a powder, put the powder upon a chafing-dish of coals, and let her receive the smoke of them up her privities.

6.  Take tar and bear’s grease, of each an equal quantity, boil them together, and whilst it is boiling, add a little pigeon’s dung to it.  Spread some of this upon a linen cloth, and apply it to the veins of the back of her that is troubled with afterpains, and it will give her speedy ease.

Lastly, let her take half a drachm of bay-berries beaten into a powder, in a drachm of muscadel or teat.

II.  Another accident to which women in child-bed are subject is haemorrhoids or piles, occasioned through the great straining in bringing the child into the world.  To cure this,

1.  Let her be let blood in the saphoena vein.

2.  Let her use polypodium in her meat, and drink, bruised and boiled.

3.  Take an onion, and having made a hole in the middle, of it, fill it full of oil, roast it and having bruised it all together, apply it to the fundament.

4.  Take a dozen of snails without shells, if you can get them, or else so many shell snails, and pull them out, and having bruised them with a little oil, apply them warm as before.

5.  If she go not well to stool, let her take an ounce of cassia fistula drawn at night, going to bed; she needs no change of diet after.

III.  Retention of the menses is another accident happening to women in child-bed, and which is of so dangerous a consequence, that, if not timely remedied, it proves mortal.  When this happens,

1.  Let the woman take such medicines as strongly provoke the terms, such as dittany, betony, pennyroyal, feverfew, centaury, juniper-berries, peony roots.

2.  Let her take two or three spoonfuls of briony water each morning.

3.  Gentian roots beaten into a powder, and a drachm of it taken every morning in wine, are an extraordinary remedy.

4.  The roots of birthwort, either long or round, so used and taken as the former, are very good.