Q. By what means doth the milk of the paps come to the matrix or womb?  A. There is a certain knitting and coupling of the paps with the womb, and there are certain veins which the midwives do cut in the time of the birth of the child, and by those veins the milk flows in at the navel of the child, and so it receives nourishment by the navel.

Q. Why is it a sign of a male child in the womb when the milk that runneth out of a woman’s breast is thick, and not much, and of a female when it is thin?  A. Because a woman that goeth with a boy hath a great heat in her, which doth perfect the milk and make it thick; but she who goes with a girl hath not so much heat, and therefore the milk is undigested, imperfect, watery and thin, and will swim above the water if it be put into it.

Q. Why is the milk white, seeing the flowers are red, of which it is engendered?  A. Because blood which is well purged and concocted becomes white, as appeareth in flesh whose proper colour is white, and being boiled, is white.  Also, because every humour which is engendered of the body, is made like unto that part in colour where it is engendered as near as it can be; but because the flesh of the paps is white, therefore the colour of the milk is white.

Q. Why doth a cow give milk more abundantly than other beasts?  A. Because she is a great eating beast, where there is much monthly superfluity engendered, there is much milk; because it is nothing else but the blood purged and tried.

Q. Why is not milk wholesome?  A. 1.  Because it curdeth in the stomach, whereof an evil breath is bred. 2.  Because the milk doth grow sour in the stomach, where evil humours are bred, and infect the breath.

Q. Why is milk bad for such as have the headache?  A. Because it is easily turned into great fumosities, and hath much terrestrial substance in it, the which ascending, doth cause the headache.

Q. Why is milk fit nutriment for infants?  A. Because it is a natural and usual food, and they were nourished by the same in the womb.

Q. Why are the white-meats made of a newly milked cow good?  A. Because milk at that time is very springy, expels fumosities, and, as it were, purges at that time.

Q. Why is the milk naught for the child, if the woman giving suck uses carnal copulation?  A. Because in time of carnal copulation, the best part of the milk goes to the seed vessels, and to the womb, and the worst remain in the paps, which hurts the child.

Q. Why do physicians forbid the eating of fish and milk at the same time?  A. Because they produce a leprosy, and because they are phlegmatic.

Q. Why have not birds and fish milk and paps?  A. Because paps would hinder the flight of birds.  And although fish have neither paps nor milk, the females cast much spawn, which the male touches with a small gut, and causes their kind to continue in succession.

Of the Back.