When she has come so near to her time, as to be ten or fourteen days thereof, if she begins to feel any more than ordinary pain let her use every day the following:—­“Take mallows and marshmallows, of each a handful; camomiles, hard mercury, maidenhair, of each a handful; of linseed, four ounces; let them be boiled in a sufficient quantity of water as to make a bath therewith.”  But let her not sit too hot upon the seat, nor higher than a little above her navel; nor let her sit upon it longer than about half an hour, lest her strength languish and decay, for it is better to use it often than to stay too long in it.

And thus have I shown how a child-bearing woman ought to govern herself each month during her pregnancy.  How she must order herself at her delivery, shall be shown in another chapter, after I have first shown the intended midwife how the child is first formed in the womb, and the manner of its decumbiture there.

* * * * *

CHAPTER III

     Of the Parts proper to a Child in the womb; How it is formed
     there, and the manner of its Situation therein.

In the last chapter I treated of conception, showed what it was, how accomplished and its signs, and how she who has conceived ought to order herself during the time of her pregnancy.  Now, before I come to speak of her delivery, it is necessary that the midwife be first made acquainted with the parts proper to a child in the womb, and also that she be shown how it is formed, and the manner of its situation and decumbiture there; which are so necessary to her, that without the knowledge thereof, no one can tell how to deliver a woman as she ought.  This, therefore, shall be the work of this chapter.  I shall begin with the first of these.

SECTION I.—­Of the Parts proper to a Child in the Womb.

In this section, I must first tell you what I mean by the parts proper to a child in the womb; and they are only those that either help or nourish it; and whilst it is lodged in that dark repository of nature, and that help to clothe and defend it there and are cast away, as of no more use, after it is born, and these are two, viz., the umbilicars, or navel vessels, and the secundinum.  By the first it is nourished, and by the second clothed and defended from wrong.  Of each of these I shall speak distinctly; and first,

Of the Umbilicars, or Navel Vessels.

These are four in number, viz.:—­one vein, two arteries, and the vessel which is called the urachos.

(1) The vein is that on which the infant is nourished, from the time of its conception till the time of its delivery; till being brought into the light of the world, it has the same way of concocting the food we have.  This vein ariseth from the liver of the child, and is divided into two parts when it has passed the navel; and these two are divided and subdivided, the branches being upheld by the skin called chorion (of which I speak by and by), and are joined to the veins of the mother’s womb, from whence they have their blood for the nourishment of the child.