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CHAPTER I

_Treating of the several Maladies incident to the womb, with proper
remedies for the cure of each._


The womb is placed in the _hypogastrium_, or lower part of the body, in
the cavity called the _pelvis_, having the straight gut on one side to
protect it against the hardness of the backbone, and the bladder on the
other side to protect it against blows. Its form or shape is like a
virile member, with this exception, that the man's is outside, and the
woman's inside.

It is divided into the neck and body. The neck consists of a hard fleshy
substance, much like cartilage, and at the end of it there is a membrane
placed transversely, which is called the hymen. Near the neck there is a
prominent pinnacle, which is called the door of the womb, because it
preserves the _matrix_ from cold and dust. The Greeks called it
_clitoris_, and the Latins _praeputium muliebre_, because the Roman
women abused these parts to satisfy their mutual unlawful lusts, as St.
Paul says, Romans 1. 26.

The body of the womb is where the child is conceived, and this is not
altogether round, but dilates itself into two angles; the outward part