On Women's Conditions, Book One — First Draft Translation

WOMEN'S CONDITIONS, BOOK ONE. 1 On the conditions of women: I hold that a woman who has not given birth, or one who has given birth, falls ill more severely and more quickly from disorders of the menstrual flow; for when she has given birth, her small vessels are freer-flowing toward the menses. What makes them flow freely is the post-delivery purging and the bursting open of the body. The parts nearest to the belly and the breasts burst open most, and the rest of the body bursts open too. The cause of this I have stated in my work on the nature of the child at birth. Once the body has burst open, it is necessary that the vessels open their mouths more and become freer-flowing toward the menses, and that the womb opens its mouth more, since the child has passed through it and brought force and labor with it. With these things in this condition, the woman clears out her menses with less effort, once she has had experience of the post-delivery flow. If some affliction comes upon a woman who has already given birth such that the menses cannot be cleared, she will bear the pain more easily than if she had not given birth; for the womb is accustomed to it, and the body is suited to being filled, as in one who carries in the belly, and at the same time there is more open space in the body for the blood once she has given birth, since the body has burst open; and the blood, being in open space, gives less pain, unless the vessels become overfull and over-taut. But for a woman who has not given birth, since her body is unaccustomed to being filled and is stronger and more solid and denser than if she had had experience of post-delivery flow, and since the openings of the womb are less open, the monthly flow passes with more pain, and more afflictions fall upon her such as to block the menses, when she has not given birth. The matter stands as I have already stated: I hold that a woman's flesh is more porous and softer than a man's; and this being so, the woman's body draws moisture from the belly more quickly and more fully than a man's. Indeed, if someone were to place clean wool and a clean garment, well packed and weighed to equal weight with the wool, over water or over a moist place for two days and two nights, then take them up and weigh them, they would find the wool much heavier than the garment. The reason this happens is that moisture always moves upward out of water contained in a wide-mouthed vessel, and the wool, being porous and soft, absorbs more of what moves upward, while the garment, being dense and well-packed, becomes saturated and for the most part does not receive the rising moisture. In the same way, the woman, being more porous, has drawn more of the moisture from the belly into her body, and more quickly than the man; and because the woman's flesh is soft, when her body has been filled with blood, if it does not pass off from her, the flesh being filled and growing warm, pain arises — for the woman carries hotter blood and is therefore hotter than the man. But if the excess that has come on passes off, the pain and the heat from the blood do not arise. The man, having denser flesh than the woman, is not overfilled with blood to the point where, if some blood does not pass off each month, pain arises; he draws as much as is needed for the body's nourishment, and his body, not being soft, is not over-taut and is not overheated from fullness as in the woman. It contributes greatly to this for the man that he exerts himself more than the woman; for exertion draws off moisture. When therefore the monthly flow is hidden in a woman who has not given birth and cannot find a way out, disease arises. This happens when the mouth of the womb has closed or turned aside, or some part of the genitals has twisted; for if any of these obtains, the monthly flow will not be able to find an exit until the womb returns to its healthy natural state. 2 This disease arises most often in those who have narrow-mouthed wombs, or whose neck lies forward of the genitals; for if either of these is the case, and the woman does not have intercourse with a man, and the belly is emptied more than is fitting by some affliction, the womb turns around — for it is not kept moist of itself, since she is not having intercourse, and there is open space for it, since the belly is more empty, so that it turns about because it is drier and lighter than is fitting. And sometimes when it turns it happens that the mouth is twisted forward, since the neck already lies forward of the genitals; for if the womb is kept moist by intercourse and the belly is not emptied, it does not easily turn. This, then, is what causes the womb to close, through the woman's not having intercourse. At the third period she will fare best if the retained matter descends and discharges the accumulation; if not, the woman will suffer the following: suffocation will come upon her at one time and another, and fever will take her at one time and another, and shivering, and pain in the loins. She will suffer these things at the third monthly period if it does not come out; and at the fourth period, if it has not come out and does not make an exit for what came before, she will suffer all the pains of the third period more severely, and most at the time of the menses, then less, and often she will seem to be without pain. And besides these there will be further signs: she will pass much thick urine at times, and her belly will be hard and larger than before, and she will grind her teeth, refuse food, and be sleepless. She will suffer such things at the fourth monthly period; if attended to she regains health even then. And at the fifth period, if the monthly flow does not come down in abundance, the pain attacks more severely. By the sixth period she will already be beyond cure. She will suffer the earlier signs more severely, and in addition to them the following: she will be restless and will throw herself about at one time and another, and will faint, and will vomit phlegm, and a powerful thirst will seize her, since the belly is being burned by the womb being full of blood, and she will be in pain when touched, especially in the lower abdomen, and will have sharp fever at one time and another, and the womb will gurgle at one time and another, since the blood is being shaken about and is not passing through within it, and the belly will not pass through in the normal way, nor will the bladder filter the urine, when the womb falls upon the sinew-like channel of the bladder and pushes into the belly. She is in pain in the spine and throughout the back, and her tongue is bridled and she has it indistinct, and there is faintness, and in some cases also loss of voice, and she gnaws at the esophageal passage, and yellow bile comes out, and the pneuma is checked, and she is restless, and she throws herself about, and she burns with fever. When the womb shifts and the bladder draws in the thin portion of the blood from the womb, then the urine is passed red; and she is in pain throughout the rest of the body, most of all in the neck, the spine, the loin, and the groins; and when she has come to this point, her belly swells up and her legs swell more than is right, and the lower legs and feet, and death comes on. 2 (continued) And in this case the monthly flow, being hidden, ends thus over six months. The following also happens: in some women, when the menses have been retained in the womb for two months and are abundant, the flow passes into the lung when it is trapped there, and the woman suffers everything described under phthisis (wasting / consumption), and she is unable to survive. The following also happens: in some women the monthly flow becomes purulent after being retained, when it reaches two or three months; this happens most of all if it is burned through by fever. The signs that it is purulent are these: strong pains fall into the lower abdomen and throbbing, and when touched she cannot endure it; and if she is going to do better, the monthly flow bursts out through the genitals and pus and blood pass out; it passes out with odor over seven or eight or nine days; and in the earlier time she is in pain, as has been said above. When the purging is complete, it is best if no ulcers arise; but if ulcers are left behind, treatment of greater intensity will be required, so that the ulcers do not become macerated and foul-smelling. She will also be barren even if she recovers, if the ulcers formed in the womb were large. If the purulent monthly flow does not pass through the genitals, it will happen that above the groin at the flank a rupture occurs without a swelling, since the pus has eaten through, and purulent foul matter passes that way; and if this happens, the woman does not survive; and if she does survive, she will always be barren, for thereafter the passage for the menses outside lies that way, since the mouth of the womb has fallen toward that place. The following also happens: in some women, when the menses have been retained for two or three months or longer and fall against the flank, without the menses being purulent, something like a swelling forms above the groin, headless, large, and red. Many physicians, not knowing what this is, have already cut into it and brought the patient into danger in this way. What forms as a kind of swelling forms in the following manner: the flesh draws from the blood, since the mouth of the womb is lying against the flank, and becomes filled from it, and the flesh swells out as it is filled with blood. And sometimes, if the mouth of the womb shifts and comes to align with the genitals, and the menses pass through the genitals, the protrusion along the flank subsides; for the blood redistributes into the womb and the womb releases it outward. But if the mouth of the womb does not turn toward the genitals, it suppurates along the flank, and a passage is made that way for the menses, and the dangers are the same as those stated before. It also turns toward vomiting; in some women also through the anus, as I have stated in the conditions of girls, and it shows the same signs and pains as those described there; but the menses take this route less often in women than in girls. When the monthly flow is hidden, pain grips the lower belly, and something feels as though it is pressing down, and the loins suffer terribly, and the flanks. 3 If the monthly flow fails altogether by reason of disease, or if it comes thick and viscous and sticky, first one must purge the belly both upward and downward; then treat the womb with a suppository by which blood is purged, and allow an interval, and give a drink by which blood is purged; and let her also drink samphire in wine from torchwood. If the flow does not come, it will be such that she seems to be with child, and intercourse with a man causes her pain as if something were pressing inside, and a heaviness arises in the belly, and the belly protrudes, and she yearns and craves as one who carries in the belly, and she feels nausea around the heart, when approximately fifty days have passed, and pain grips the belly around the navel at one time and another, and the neck and the groins and the loin. And when two or three months have passed, sometimes the menses break out through the genitals all at once, and what comes out seems like small pieces of flesh, as from a miscarriage, and dark. In some there are also ulcers in the womb, and the treatment will require attention. In many it happens that they seem to have been with child for six months or a little less time, and the belly protrudes, and everything else seems to be happening to her as to one who carries in the belly. Then in some the flow, having become purulent, ruptures above the groin at the fifth or sixth month and makes its way out there; and in some there are ulcers in the womb in the area above the groin, and she will be in danger of dying; and if she does survive she will be barren. In some the rupture comes through the genitals and rotten and purulent matter passes out, and from this ulcers arise in the womb, and she will be in danger; and it is necessary, so that the ulcers do not become chronic, to treat her with attention. She too becomes barren even if she is healed. If the menses do not burst out and the condition has been borne out to six months, she will suffer everything that the woman who has not given birth suffers when the menses cannot find a way out; and if she is treated she will be well; if not, having held out to eight months, she dies. In many women it happens, when the menses pass phlegm-like, that this goes on for a long time and the flow is less than the healthy amount; she recovers if treated properly. If the monthly flow comes in a woman but comes in less than the right amount — since the mouth of the womb is tilted a little away from the genitals or is closed to just that extent, such that flow comes but the passages through which it crosses are also blocked, the blood pressing always upon the mouth once it descends into the womb — it advances little by little; and then when the days pass on which she was accustomed to be purged, and the blood remaining in the womb is held back, and the next monthly flow coming down does not push out the retained blood but always weighs down as it descends, for the woman the first months will be such that she does not notice it much, for two or three months. 4 When more months have passed, she will be in still more pain, and she will not be able to carry in the belly as long as this continues, and fever will take her most on the days on which she was accustomed to be purged, and it is mild; and it is likely that between those times she has fever and shivering and nausea and brings up matter in considerable amount every day; and she is in pain at one time and another throughout the body, most of all in the loin, the spine, the groins, and the joints of the hands and legs. These do not all ache at the same time, but at different times in different places, wherever the blood presses that has been cut off and cannot remain in the womb; and wherever it settles in the body, a swelling sometimes arises and a powerful spasm of the joints of the body, and of the other signs previously mentioned some appears at one time and another. If this woman is treated properly she will be well; if not, the disease lasting seven months or more might kill her, or lame her, or render some part of her uncontrolled, if from cold and lack of food the blood, wherever it reaches, congeals around the sinews. This disease arises more in women without husbands. If the diseases just described, or those that will be described, fall upon a woman who has experience of childbirth, they will be more prolonged and less painful; and the signs and outcomes are the same in the woman who has not given birth and in the one experienced with the post-delivery flow, if they are not treated. Treatment must be undertaken at once; if not, the diseases come to the fore. If the monthly flow passes in greater quantity than is right and is thicker — since the body is by nature free-flowing and the mouth of the womb lies close to the genitals, and in addition to this she has intercourse with a man frequently and eats richly in a single bout — the large quantities of rich food that descend and flow in a flood force the mouth of the womb further open by their pressure. And if after this no emptying of the vessels follows, but she again eats richly, and widens the mouth, and the body, as she feasts and has cravings and has intercourse with her husband, is freely flowing toward the womb and brings large quantities down, she will be without color for as long as this continues; and if later some disease or affliction falls upon her such as to wear the body down, all the same the womb is wide-mouthed as it has become accustomed, and the body flows freely toward it; and after this fever takes her, and she refuses food, and she is restless, and she is thin and feeble from the monthly flow, and she will be in pain in the loin; and as time goes on, if she is not treated, all her pains will increase in the interval, and there will be risk that she becomes barren, or, worn down by time and the disease, if some other disease falls upon her in addition to this, she may die of it. 6 The menses flow thickest and most abundantly in the middle days, and at beginning and end less and thinner. The fitting measure for every healthy woman is that the monthly flow when it comes should be about two Attic kotylai, or a little more or less, and this over two or three days; a longer or shorter time is sickly and barren. One must judge by looking to the body of the woman, and by asking in comparison with what came before, whether it comes in a sickly manner or not; for if it visits on fewer or more days than is customary, or the flow itself is less or more, it is sickly — unless the natural constitution itself is diseased and barren; and if this is the case and it is shifting toward what is healthier, that is better. The blood flows like blood from a sacrificial animal and clots quickly if the woman is healthy. Those for whom it is natural to be purged for more than four days, and whose monthly flow is very abundant, become thin, and their embryos are thin and waste away. Those for whom the purging lasts less than three days or comes in small amounts are stout and of good color and have a mannish bearing, but they are not given to childbearing and do not become pregnant. If suffocation comes on suddenly — this happens most of all in women not having intercourse with men, and more in older than in younger ones, for their wombs are lighter — it happens most of all for this reason: when the woman's vessels are emptied and she exerts herself more than she is accustomed, the womb, dried out by the exertion, turns about, since it is empty and light; for there is open space for it to turn in, since the belly is empty. Turning, it falls against the liver, they come together, and it strikes into the hypochondria; for it runs and moves upward toward moisture, having been dried more than is fitting by the exertion; the liver is moist. When it falls against the liver, it causes suffocation suddenly, seizing the passage of breath about the belly. 7 And at the same time as they begin sometimes to press against the liver, phlegm streams down from the head into the hypochondria as from one being choked, and sometimes along with the downstreaming of the phlegm they return to their place away from the liver, and the suffocation stops. They come back down having drawn up moisture and been weighed down; a creaking sound comes from them when they pass back to their own seat. When they have come back down, sometimes the belly afterward becomes more moist than before; for now the head releases the phlegm into the belly. When the womb is against the liver and the hypochondria and causes suffocation, the whites of the eyes turn up, and the woman becomes cold; and some become livid as well; and she grinds her teeth, and saliva flows to the mouth, and she resembles those seized by the sacred disease. If the womb lingers against the liver and the hypochondria, the woman is choked to death. Sometimes, when the woman's vessels are emptied and she exerts herself additionally, the womb as it turns falls against the channel of the bladder and causes strangury, but no other harm befalls her; and she recovers quickly when treated, and sometimes spontaneously. In some, falling against the loin or the hips from exertion or lack of food, it causes pains. If a woman's menses come in a bilious form such that her body is in poor condition, it is easily recognized by this: they are very dark, and sometimes shining dark, and come in very small amounts, and do not clot quickly, and the generative seed deteriorates in both the man and the woman, and she does not become pregnant; and at the beginning of the disease she is purged on the days she was accustomed to, and not more; but as the monthly periods go on, she is purged over more days, and the menses appear in lesser quantity on each day; and errant sharp fevers with shivering come on, and loss of appetite at one time and another, and heartburn, and she will be most in pain when the menses are approaching her; and when she is purged, she will have some relief for a short time compared to before, and then will return again to the same state; but attended to she recovers quickly. 8 [40] But if she has not been treated and time advances, all the things previously mentioned will afflict her more severely, and pain will take hold — sometimes in the lower belly below the navel, sometimes in the groins, sometimes in the loins and the perineum, sometimes in the neck, sometimes a strong suffocating sensation will come upon her, and before her eyes there will be darkness and dizziness, as though the purging were being driven upward and mounting. For if the body is in poor condition, the monthly discharge becomes less for a woman; and for those whose body is fuller, the monthly discharge is more. But for the woman who has bilious monthly discharges, faint-heartedness falls upon her, and loss of appetite now and again, and restlessness, and sleeplessness, and she belches frequently, and she is unwilling to walk about, and she is despondent, and she seems unable to look at things directly, and she is fearful. And if she is cared for, she will recover from these things; but if time advances, she will suffer still more. The best outcome would be if a bilious vomiting comes upon her, or the belly is moderately disturbed and discharges bilious matter without violence, or a flow comes upon her that is not violent; for if any of these should fall with force upon a body that has been exhausted, she will be in danger. But if some part or all of what is troubling her — the bilious matter — is purged away gently, she becomes well. But if she is neither cared for nor does any of these things occur, the woman dies. And it is as a general rule that a bilious flow falls upon women from such a disease. If a flow comes about, what appears will at first be scanty, but over the course of days it generally increases; and as time advances, for the most part the disease also becomes acute, and the womb is bitten by the bilious purging passing through and is ulcerated. And still even at this stage she recovers when cared for, if the flow is checked for her; but if the womb becomes inflamed from the ulcerations, her disease will be yet more acute, and from the womb itself there will come much foul-smelling and purulent matter, already passing out each time like the serum from flesh, and all the things previously mentioned will afflict her more severely, and the ulcerations will become still more fierce until they carry her off; and if she is in fact healed, she will be infertile on account of the scarring. But if a woman is in poor bodily condition and is of a phlegmatic nature, the monthly discharges will pass for her in a phlegmatic character; and it is recognizable if they pass in a phlegmatic character: for they appear membranous, and stretch out like cobwebs, and are whitish. 9 [5] This comes about if the body and the head of the womb are filled with phlegm, and this is not purged downward either through the nostrils or through the seat or through the urethra, but goes out with the monthly discharges and with the disturbance of the blood together with the purging. And if things are thus, for two or three months she does not perceive it; but when the time grows longer and she is not cared for, she will suffer more, and a wandering fever will seize her, and she will lose appetite now and again, and will have heartburn, and will suffer most when the monthly discharges approach; and when she has been purged, she is relieved for a short time relative to what came before, then settles back into the same state; and if she is not cared for and time advances, everything will happen as would happen if the monthly discharges were passing biliously, until a flow takes hold of her. It follows for this woman also that a phlegmatic flow arises, or other things which I shall describe a little later; and if it comes in addition, it proceeds every day continually, sometimes in a rush, sometimes in small amounts, and sometimes something like water from barley passes, and sometimes something like serum, and in it many clots of blood form, and it etches the ground like vinegar, and bites wherever it touches the woman, and ulcerates the womb. And when she has come to this pass, she experiences the other things the same as the previous woman; but she will suffer less in the head than that other one, and the ulcerations are not unsightly nor large nor purulent nor foul-smelling in the same way as in that other case — they are less severe here. With careful attention she recovers even when the disease has advanced, and she does not readily die; but she cannot be fertile while in such a condition. As for those who live with a husband and are unable to conceive, one must ask whether the monthly discharges appear for them or not, and whether the seed goes away immediately or on the next day or on the third or the sixth or the seventh. If she says it goes away immediately when she lies down, the mouth of the womb is not straight but turns aside and does not take hold of the seed; if she says on the second or third day, the womb has become too moist and the seed is washed out; if on the sixth and seventh day, the seed rots, and once rotted it passes away. 10 [5] For the case of not receiving the seed at all, the mouth of the womb must first be treated so that it will be straight. For the case of being washed out on the second or third day, the womb and the head must be treated. For the case of rotting and passing away, both the womb and the entire body, which is excessively moist. Each of these must be recognized as follows. What sort of purging it requires, you shall recognize thus: when the monthly discharges occur, fold a rag to about a span and spread it out on fine ash; then arrange for what passes to flow onto it. Let there be two such cloths kept separately, one for the daytime and one for the night; and the daytime ones should be washed on the following day, and the nighttime ones when a full day and night have passed with them lying on the ashes. When washing them, examine what the rags look like when washed and dried in sunlight — though best in a dark place. 11 [45] If then it is phlegm that is the obstruction, the rags will be mucus-like; if it is brine and bile, they will be reddish and somewhat livid. Having observed these things and tested them with careful judgment, view the whole body — whether it seems to require much purging or not — having assessed the color, the age, the strength, the season, and what sort of diaita they follow. Treatment must also take thought for the whole body, and the womb and its mouth must be healed: if it is closed, it must be opened up; if they are turned sideways, they must be straightened; if they are too moist, they must be dried out, and the other things done in the opposite manner. In general, for nearly all women the main treatment is the same, except for drawing down the monthly discharges; for those in whom the discharges are already occurring, there is no need to force them out, but whatever is bad in the monthly discharges must be removed — when they pass phlegmatic and membranous, and bilious, and serum-like, and thin, or white and clotted, and when they are dark and coal-like, or murky, or sharp, salty, turbid, purulent. All these causes must be removed, for they prevent conception. Those whose monthly discharges are phlegmatic and membranous — these women are fleshy — the mouth of their womb is moist, and they have much thick and sticky saliva; and if they taste something sharp or pungent, the saliva in the mouth becomes more waterlogged and flat, and with everything they eat or drink a discomfort sets in for them, and the belly swells, and nausea, and much restlessness; a flux pours down from the head, and everything is clogged up, and it brings on much moisture, and the area under the eyes is livid and puffed. These women must be fomented all over, and made to vomit frequently, both after food and while fasting; the lower belly must be softened with very mild drugs, those that drive bile least, and they must eat but once a day, and take frequent exercise, and live on the driest food possible, and the least possible drink, the more undiluted the better; a loose belly is better to maintain. The womb must be purged, if it does not respond to this diaita, with non-irritating suppositories; always pre-foment before the purgings, first with fomentation made from fennel, then with that from fumigations. The fomentations and applications must be applied in such a way that everything will have been done and will be in proper order during the time when the monthly discharges occur. If then they become clean and pure and blood-red, let her go to her husband at the beginning of the monthly discharges; best is when they are tapering off and still going rather than when they have ceased. When she is about to go to her husband, let her fumigate with one of the astringent fumigants; let her fumigate through the funnel and the tube, sprinkling the drug on hot ash; and when she has sprinkled it, place the funnel and the tube around, and seated, let her be fomented. When she needs to be fumigated, let her use the lead instrument, so that the mouth being open she may be fumigated; then when she rises, let her again insert the lead instrument in the bed; then after removing it, let her straightaway lie with her husband, and if what comes from the husband is not evident to her, let her extend and cross her legs and be still. 11 (50) [70] Fasting is beneficial on that day, except for a kykeon (a mixed drink), unsalted in water, if she wishes; this she should drink at the time when she is about to be fumigated. If after lying with her husband she retains the seed on the following day and it has not gone away by the next day, she must abstain from food and baths, and drink barley-groats in plain unsalted water two or three times a day. This diaita should last six days, and seven is better, provided what has come from the husband does not leave when she has lain with him. Let her take no bath throughout this whole time, and let her practice keeping still; but if she wishes to walk, let her walk on level and smooth ground — nothing uphill and nothing downhill; she should sit on soft things if she has conceived; and let her follow the same diaita in other respects for up to thirty days. She should abstain from bathing, or, when it is necessary to bathe, with a small amount of not very hot water; the head must not be wetted. Let her use foods: bread and barley-cake if she wishes; of meats: pigeon and similar birds; of seafoods: those that bind the belly; she must abstain from sharp vegetables; let her use dark wine; roasted meats rather than boiled, both of domestic and wild animals. And for this woman, if she has conceived, she must do thus; but if she has not conceived, and what has come from the husband flows away on the second or third day in great abundance of moisture, it is clear that the womb is too moist. 12 [25] She must then be treated according to the method described, until they become dry; and when they seem to be dry, the best treatment is a softening medicine behind and in front, until they return to their natural state; and let her go to her husband again when the monthly discharges are no longer copious but scanty and well-colored, and she is in a state of desire. And on the other days she should feel longing for her husband, if the womb is in the best condition. When she lies with him on the days mentioned, if the womb is in proper readiness, and she retains the seed for ten or twelve days, she should not go to her husband. But if she does not conceive, yet the womb is healthy — for this also happens to many women, when the womb becomes enfeebled, though well-nourished, by disease or by much treatment with drugs and fomentation, and is unable to carry the seed until it becomes accustomed and gains strength — this is recognizable by the following: when the seed leaves her, it leaves on the second or even third day and yet later, and it comes out thick and congealed, like mucus, unless there is some malady and the seed departs because of another disease of the womb. When such things appear, treatment of the womb is sufficient; but care must be taken for the rest of the body, so that her condition is such that the body is at once well-knit and of good substance — with few baths, with mild but more frequent exertions; she must abstain from sharp and salty things; she must use emetics before the days on which she is accustomed to have her monthly discharges, and then undergo food restriction, and carry out the other things that have been stated. That is the treatment for these cases. For those in whom the seed flows through at once when they have lain with a man, the mouth of the womb is the cause. 13 [25] She must be treated as follows: if it is tightly closed, it must be opened up with wax tapers and lead instruments; she must be fomented with a gentle fomentation made from fennel, and the womb purged with suppositories that thin the womb and set it straight; after the purgings and fomentations, irrigate with the following, things contrary to the cause. For those women in whom the mouth is turned aside and has fallen toward the hip — for such things do happen and prevent the womb from receiving the seed — when such a thing occurs, one must foment with the fragrant fomentations; after the fomentation, reaching in with a finger, draw it away from the hip; when it has been drawn away, straighten it with wax tapers and the lead instrument according to the previous account; when they have been straightened and opened, purge with soft suppositories and do the other things according to the method described. When the womb is open more than it should be, it requires purging; after the purgings, irrigations and fumigations. If it is closer than it should be, the womb requires emetics and a malodorous fomentation, until it comes into its proper place; and the diaita described should be used. If the mouth is fatty and thick, and she does not conceive on this account, let her eat boiled mustard while fasting and drink neat wine on top; as suppository: red natron and cumin and resin — best in a linen cloth; or natron with myrrh and resin and cumin and white unguent; or burn a stag's horn and mix with twice the amount of unground grain, and let her drink in wine for four days. If she gets no relief, boil leeks and let her sit over them; or let her grind oak-gall and apply as suppository; let her eat fresh garlic, and vomit while drinking hydromel. For those in whom the seed stays and rots and causes trouble, give an electuary of the fruit or juice of wild orache with honey or with cumin. 15 [10] When there is a foul smell and she does not conceive, mix purslane and goose oil and apply as suppository. For those in whom what comes from the husband passes out on the sixth and seventh day in a state of decay, the likely cause is an influx of both bile and brine; treatment must be as follows: with hellebore or with scammony and peplos — for these purge phlegm and bile both upward and downward, and drive out gas; before the purgings, use fomentations made from fumigants; when you have fomented, purge with suppositories in the same manner as in the preceding cases, and after the fomentations and purgings use the softening remedies, and the suppository made from mercury-herb, and of artemisia plant and anemone and white or black hellebore. 16 [20] For these women, that is how the drug treatments should go; but the diaita must be arranged by examining the woman's body as a whole — whether she appears to be on the dry side or on the fleshy side. If she is on the drier side: more baths, and all foods boiled, whether seafoods or meats; diluted wine; boiled vegetables; and everything fatty and sweet — for these for the most part produce moisture both in the rest of the body and in the womb. But if she is on the moister side, such women's wombs need none of these things, but the opposite; they must not be touched or newly irrigated or fumigated, for what is in motion tends to go toward what is being moved. And if they have become more moist than is natural, one must dry out and fumigate; if bilious matter is coming upon them, give what purges bile; if brine-like matter, donkey's milk and wine and the other remedies. One must examine the powers of the diseases, trace the causes to show how the diseases arise from them, and then proceed to the other matters in this way and treat the regions involved. 17 [5] For those who are prevented from conceiving by a cause in the mouths of the womb, those mouths must be put in proper order so that they are sound. For those whom the moisture prevents, this must be observed so that it does not obstruct — examining the whole situation of the women, whether something seems to be moving from the entire body, or from the womb itself, or from both. The womb must be attended to in this way: that it be neither moist nor too dry; but the drier wombs must be treated with good chymos — in proportion as they are drier, with such moisture, so that they will be rather well-nourished than lean; and the over-moist and saturated wombs must be dried, leaving them moist still and not overly desiccated; for the extremes of these must absolutely be avoided. Neither the woman with excess moisture nor the one undergoing desiccation can conceive in the womb — unless one of these conditions is part of her original nature. She should go to her husband when things are well from treatment, at the waning or beginning of the monthly discharges; and best of all when they have ceased; and she should try especially on these days to conceive, if she can — for these are the most propitious days. But if she does not conceive at once, yet all else is well, there is nothing to prevent her from coming together with her husband on other days; for the practice builds eagerness in them, and the small vessels are loosened, and if what comes from the husband flows in the same course in line with what comes from the woman, she will conceive — for this, too, is fitting for some women, whether immediately or at a later time. That is what has been said about these matters. But if the mouth of the womb is too moist, they cannot draw in the seed; sharp suppositories must be used, for when the neck is bitten and inflamed, it becomes firm in some cases; and it is akin, in a way, to what happens when they become hardened — for it is better to apply the sharp things; for stinging, being fine and fiery, they dissolve the hardening; and if the hardening has been loosened, treat with soft things and what will not bite. 19 [5] If after a long time she does not conceive while the monthly discharges are appearing, when it is the third or fourth day, grind alum fine, dissolve in unguent, sponge into a piece of wool and apply as suppository, and let her keep it for three days; on the fourth day, boil dried ox bile in oil, soak a plug of fluff and apply, and let her keep it for three days; on the next day let her remove it and lie with her husband. If the woman does not receive the seed while the feminine discharges are proceeding normally, there will be a membrane in front; it also arises from other causes; you will know this by touching the obstruction with your finger. 20 [5] Make a suppository of resin and flower of copper, dissolved in honey; smear a piece of linen cloth with it and apply with a thread tied at the end as far in as possible; when you have drawn it out, let her wash with myrtle boiled in wine, using the wine while lukewarm; it is better to remove the membrane. There are women who conceive readily but cannot carry to term, and their children perish at the third or the fourth month, with no violent event occurring and no unsuitable food. 21 [15] For these women the cause is one of those already mentioned; and especially when the womb gives way in its nourishment of the embryo. The belly is disturbed for them, and weakness and severe fever and loss of appetite fall upon them at the time when the children perish. There is also this cause: if the womb is smooth — either by nature or as a result of the scarring of ulcerations that have formed in it — for if it is smooth, sometimes the membranes that surround the child detach from it when the child begins to move, being held to the womb less firmly than is necessary, as tends to happen when the womb is smooth. One could know each of these things by careful and precise questioning; as for the smoothness, if another woman were to touch the womb while it is empty — for it cannot be made evident any other way. If the monthly discharges pass in such women, they come with warmth. There are some among them in whom it happens that they carry their embryos to term; and for those under care there is hope of delivery. The situation concerning these matters is as follows. If you wish a woman who cannot give birth to become capable of bearing children, the monthly discharges must be examined, whether they are phlegmatic or bilious. 22 [5] You shall recognize this by the following: spread fine dry sand when her monthly discharges occur, pour some of the blood on it in the sun, and let it dry; if it is bilious, the blood drying in the sand will be green; if it is phlegmatic, it will be like mucus. Whichever of these it is, purge the belly — whether upward or downward as needed; then purge the womb. If you want her to conceive, let her drink seven berries of ivy, or the leaves monthly, in old wine, when the monthly discharges are ceasing; or boil a pomegranate-rind in fragrant unmixed wine, make a pessary of it, and apply until midday; or grind Egyptian alum fine, bind it in wool and apply as suppository at sunset, then after removal let her wash with fragrant wine; do these things when the monthly discharges are ceasing. 24 [10] This too holds in the following way: when women have been fully purged, they are most receptive to conception if they come together with desire at the right time, and the seed grows strong in them if they have intercourse when it is proper, and the man's seed mingles with theirs easily, and if it prevails, it is akin to this: for it is then especially that the mouth of the womb stands open and is drawn taut after the purgations, and the blood-vessels draw in the seed; whereas in the time before, the mouth of the womb is more closed, and the blood-vessels, being full of blood, do not draw in the seed in the same way. But if the seed flows out in a streaming discharge and does not cease, she does not mingle pleasurably with the man, nor does she conceive, and the loins are painful, and she has a faint fever, and weakness, and faintness; and sometimes the womb is not in its own seat. If then the flow goes due to fullness, it is best to leave it alone; but if the womb has relaxed, the diaita (regimen / ordering of life) should be: groats, pork or wood-pigeon flesh, dark wine, and drinks that will be written down for flux. Now I will speak of the diseases of women who are pregnant. 25 [10] I say that for a woman who is two or three months pregnant, or further along, if her monthly periods continue to pass each month, she must necessarily become thin and weak; and sometimes fever takes hold during the days when the periods are passing, and while they pass; and after the passing she becomes pale, and only a little passes. In these women the womb stands more open than is timely, and they fail to sustain the growth of the embryo; for when a woman is pregnant, blood descends little by little from the whole body to the womb, and, gathering in a ring around what is within the womb, causes it to grow; but if the womb gapes more than is timely, it lets the blood go monthly, as it is accustomed to flow, and what is within the womb becomes thin and feeble. If the woman is cared for, the embryo fares better and the woman herself remains healthy; but if she is not cared for, the embryo is destroyed, and she herself risks having the disease become chronic, if the purgation flows more than it should after the miscarriage, since the mouth of the womb has been opened further. And there will be danger if, in a pregnant woman, the head is full of phlegm, and the sharp phlegm descends into the belly, and streams down from the head through the belly, and a faint fever takes hold of her, and the pulse-beats in some women are weak, ebbing, then surging, and swift; and if loss of appetite and loss of strength also take hold, there is danger that the embryo will be destroyed quickly, and she herself will be in danger of being carried off if she is not cared for — for once she escapes, the belly being in an easy-flowing state, one must take hold immediately. There are also many other dangers in which embryos are destroyed: for if the pregnant woman falls ill and is weak, or lifts a heavy burden by force, or is struck, or leaps, or is gripped by fasting or by fainting-fits, or takes too much food or too little, or is frightened and startled, or screams, or loses control of herself; and food too is a cause of destruction, and blood in excess. The wombs themselves have natural constitutions that lead to miscarriage — being full of pneuma (breath / wind), dense, porous, large, small, and such other qualities as seem fitting. If a pregnant woman suffers pain in the belly or the loins, one must be apprehensive lest the embryo miscarry if the membranes that surround it rupture. There are women who destroy the embryo if they eat or drink something sharp or bitter contrary to their custom when the child is still a newborn; for if anything contrary to custom happens to the child while it is still small, it dies; and if the woman eats or drinks such things that her belly is violently disturbed while the child is a newborn, the womb responds to the flux flowing from the belly. And if the woman has endured excessive hardship and her belly becomes hard or also becomes enlarged, the child perishes in that way too, having been heated by the hardship and compressed by the belly; for very often, when they are small, there are — mostly — stillbirths. And larger children too are destroyed; so one ought not to wonder at women who miscarry against their will; for much watchfulness and knowledge are needed to carry through and nourish the child in the womb and for it to escape safely in childbirth. If a pregnant woman is doing poorly in her body, and is bilious and suffering, and has fever now and again, and her mouth is made bitter, her tongue pale-yellow, her eyes jaundiced, her nails bilious, her urine sharp, and especially if she has fever, it will come to pass for this woman, when she gives birth, that the purgation will be bilious and the child feeble; and the lochial discharge is either bilious or very dark, and a film of fat forms on the surface, and it comes out little by little and does not coagulate quickly; and for the first period she will bear it more easily, then with greater difficulty, and she will be further purged by less than is needed; for if the body is in a bad state, the lochial discharge will flow less and be more unhealthy. 26 [20] She who has bilious monthly periods will suffer all the same things, but will be ill for a shorter time, and the disease will carry the same dangers and signs and changes; for in these women there is either bilious vomiting or a purgation through the belly, and the womb becomes ulcerated. The woman needs much watchfulness when something of this sort occurs, so that she does not die or become barren. But if none of these things occurs and she is not cared for, but her lochial discharge is suppressed, she dies for the most part within thirty-one days. Give this woman a drug that purges bile, and anise helps, and whatever promotes urination; she should vomit, and sweating should be induced, and the belly should be flushed with barley-juice, or with honey and eggs, and water of mallow. In women who are pregnant and around the seventh or eighth month, if the fullness of the breasts and belly suddenly collapses, and the breasts shrink, and the milk does not appear, declare that the child is either dead or alive but feeble. [Chapter 27 is not present in the manuscript tradition of this passage as transmitted.] 28 [5] In women who are pregnant and in whom the monthly periods appear, miscarriages occur if they are excessive and foul-smelling, or the embryos become diseased. If a pregnant woman is full of phlegm and has pain in the head, and has fever now and again, the phlegm is churning in the head, and there is heaviness and chill, and it passes through into the body and into the blood-vessels when the head is full; her colour also comes to resemble lead, and she vomits phlegm; the tongue is white, and urination, and a pale, cold disturbance of the belly, and difficulty of movement. 29 [5] When she gives birth, her purgation will flow phlegm-like, and it will appear membranous, and in it will be things stretched out like cobwebs; and she will suffer all the same things as she whose monthly periods flowed phlegm-like, but will be ill a shorter time, and the disease will carry the same dangers and signs and changes; for it will come to pass for her that the vomiting is phlegm-like, and the affections, being prolonged, are like those of that woman. For the lochial discharge and the phlegm-like monthly periods are bound together in the same manner, but the lochial discharge persists for a shorter time than the monthly periods. And if her purgation does not break open after becoming prolonged, she dies within forty-five days; and if the phlegm-like lochial purgation flows for her, it will flow in lesser quantity than the healthy amount, and if the woman is cared for she will be healthy, and she will be inflated from the beginning until she is restored to health — for it is difficult. One must give this woman a drug that drives out phlegm, and she should drink boiled goat's milk with honey as a follow-on; but if this is not complied with, give cress, or knekon, or kneoros, or polypodium, or whey, or the preparation made from salt, and whatever else loosens and drives out phlegm. If a pregnant woman has a diseased spleen from the affections that were described in the disease that gives off watery and phlegm-like monthly periods, the lochial discharge will flow watery, and it will come sometimes in large amounts, sometimes small, and it sometimes comes like water from meat — as if one were washing out bloody meat — and sometimes somewhat thicker, and it does not coagulate. 30 [10] And she who had watery monthly periods will suffer all the same things, and the disease will carry the same dangers and changes; for it will come to pass for her that there is a watery flux, or the purgation is suppressed and turns about the belly and the legs, or toward the chest, or some of these, and the same dangers will ensue as were described before. If a pregnant woman swells, give to drink the greatest possible amount of nettle-seed with honey and fragrant diluted wine twice daily. 31 [5] If a pregnant woman is distressed by bile, give barley-juice, sprinkling over it red sumac or that from the mulberry, and let her drink it cold, and it will settle. If suffocation suddenly falls upon a woman who is pregnant — and this happens most often when the woman has endured hardship and fasted, with the womb being heated by the hardship and the moisture for the embryo having become less, since the mother's belly is emptier than is timely — the embryo makes for the liver and the hypochondria, as being moist, and will cause sudden strong suffocation. 32 [20] For it takes hold of the respiration about the belly, and speechlessness grips the woman, and she rolls up the whites of her eyes, and she suffers all the other things that were described as happening to the woman I said the womb suffocates. And at the same time as the suffocation begins to occur in the pregnant woman, phlegm streams down from the head into the hypochondria, since the body is unable to draw breath. And if, at the descent of the phlegm, the embryo goes to its own place — having drawn in the moisture and been borne down by the phlegm — the woman recovers; and there is a rumbling as the embryo returns to its own place, and the belly of the woman becomes moist for the most part. But if the embryo does not go quickly to its own place, there are now two things troubling the embryo: the phlegm that has descended from the head, for it weighs upon it and chills it as it stays, and the unfamiliarity of the place; and she will be at risk of suffocation, if someone does not quickly arrange a more suitable diaita (regimen / ordering of life) for her. So these matters stand thus. If the time of birth has already arrived for a pregnant woman, and she has labour pains, and over a long time the woman is unable to deliver the child, it generally comes sideways or feet-first, when it needs to go head-first. 33 [5] The condition comes about in the following way: just as if someone were to throw an olive-stone into a narrow-mouthed flask, it is not easy to remove it when it is lying sideways, so too for the woman it is a difficult condition when the embryo has turned oblique, for it does not come out. It is also difficult if it comes feet-first, and often either the mothers have perished or the children, or both. And there is this too as a great cause of the difficulty of expulsion: if it is dead, or struck motionless, or doubled over. When a woman is pregnant, she becomes altogether pale, because pure blood is always being drained continuously from her body little by little and descends upon the embryo, and brings about its growth, and since there is less blood in the body she must be pale, and always desire strange foods, and feel nauseous and sickened by small amounts, and become weaker because the blood diminishes. 34 [40] I say that a woman who is at the point of delivery gives off rapid pneuma (breath / air-movement), and when the purgation begins the belly is full and warm when pressed. She breathes most rapidly especially when birth draws near, and it is then especially that she suffers pain in the loins; for the loins are also bruised by the embryo; and throughout the whole intervening time she has heartburn now and again, since the belly is drawn tight around the embryo, especially the womb. And if after giving birth the womb has become wind-filled, prepare a sheep's or goat's liver by burying it in ash, then boil it and have her take it; and if some time has passed since the birth, let her drink undiluted old wine for four days, unless something prevents it. If she has pain in the loins, let her drink anise and Ethiopian cumin, and let her bathe in warm water. If she is seized by laboured breathing, take sulphur about the size of a bean, and equal amounts of cardamom, rue, and Ethiopian cumin; crush these and dissolve in wine and give to drink frequently on an empty stomach; and let her abstain from solid food. If during childbirth the purgation flows in large amount, the womb is contracted, and so too the bladder and the intestine, and they retain neither stool nor urine but let them go; give her then eggs to drink down, and bread baked in ashes to eat, and whatever else is written down. If she is dry and poorly moistened during childbirth, let her drink oil, and irrigate the region with warm oil, with water of mallow, anoint with soft wax-salve, and inject goose fat with oil. If she is unable to give birth, fumigate beneath with resin, or cumin, or pine bark; and fumigate with this also. All swellings of the womb that arise during or after childbirth, one must not astringent — as physicians do — but apply the following drugs, which are best: Ethiopian cumin, as much as can be taken between three fingers, and anise, and of seseli five or six, half a root of glycyrrhiza of the hollow, or also of the seed; give these especially on an empty stomach in fragrant white wine; or root of Ethiopian daucus, seseli, root of glycyrrhiza in the same manner; or fruit of horse-parsley and Ethiopian daucus in like fashion; or root of rock-samphire, or an Attic four-obol weight of Ethiopian cumin, or pepper, anise, daucus, elderberry, root of glycyrrhiza; grind these in wine and give to drink; or two or three sprigs of myrtle-berry, and Ethiopian cumin, root of glycyrrhiza, or linseed in like manner — which they also give to children who cough, along with a roasted egg yolk, with toasted sesame. If a woman in childbirth has aphthous sores on the genital parts, grind almonds and ox marrow and boil in water, and adding a little ground meal, smear the genital parts, and flush with water from myrtle. Now I will speak of the lochial discharges and those things that flow after childbirth. 35 [15] Whenever a woman either does not undergo the lochial purging, or the monthly periods do not come, or the womb is hard, there is pain gripping the loins, and she has sharp pains in the flanks and the groin and the thighs and the feet, and the belly rises up, and shivers dart through the body, and out of such conditions sharp fevers arise. In this woman, if she has no fever, treat with baths as diaita (regimen), and anoint the head with flower-oil; boil mallow, or pour cypress oil into water and let her sit in it as a soothing measure; in all diseases in which heat-treatment helps, it is better to anoint with fat-oil afterward; but if she has fever, keep her from baths; apply fomentation, and treat the lower belly and the loins with warm poultices; give drinks of the womb-drugs, adding either cuttlefish eggs or beaver-musk; after this give her groats boiled with rue to drink down, or barley-juice. If in a woman the fluid does not flow as it should at birth alongside the child, but is less than normal: if the fluid has been drawn up into the head by the heat during and shortly before delivery, she will have pain in the head; but if salt-fluid goes into the belly once it has rushed in, it will disturb her, and not slowly. 36 [45] One must take measures so that the diarrhoea arising from this does not distress a body already in poor condition. If the flux coming from the head turns into the lochial purgation and flows out abundantly, it provides relief; if more than moderate, care is needed; but if it goes into the belly, the child's exit would be easier. If the purgation flows scantily in the woman, a strong pain grips the loins and the whole region around the genitals, and it swells, and the thighs become inflamed, and watery phlegm flows from the mouth and the nostrils, and she has a headache, and fever, and shivering, and she sweats, and her teeth grind, and she loses consciousness, and her belly and bladder will be blocked, and she rolls her eyes upward, and sees darkly. For a woman who has just given birth, when the purgation occurs it does not flow easily, since the womb has become inflamed and its mouth has closed; for the neck of the genital passage contracts after the child has made its exit; for if any of these things is present, the purgation will not flow for her; and if the purgation does not flow for her, it will come to pass that she has fever, and shivering, and a large belly; and if she is touched she has pain throughout the whole body, most of all if someone touches the belly, and she has heartburn now and again, and suffers in the loins, and loss of appetite and sleeplessness and stabbing pain. Then on the fifth or seventh day the belly is sometimes disturbed, and passes very dark and foul-smelling matter, sometimes like donkey's urine, and if it passes, it seems to her to be easier, and if cared for she quickly becomes healthy; but if not, she will be at risk when a strong diarrhoea falls upon her, and the lochial discharge will be suppressed in her. But if her belly is not disturbed, nor the purgation flowing of its own accord, nor the suitable remedies applied quickly, and time advances, she will suffer the aforesaid things more, and on top of these she will be at risk of becoming livid like lead, and of becoming dropsical, and her navel will stand out, being lifted by the womb, and will be darker than the surrounding area. And when these things come to pass, the woman is no longer able to survive; different women die at different times, according to how their body and their condition are; but they do not go beyond twenty-one days, as this is what generally comes to pass. But if her purgation breaks open, whether by drugs or of its own accord — for this too happens, if the womb's mouth relaxes when forced open by the blood that has come down all at once in a rush — and if it breaks open, there is a purgation of foul-smelling and purulent matter, and sometimes dark, and she will be easier, and if cared for she is restored to health. And there are also ulcerations in the womb as a result of the lochial discharge rotting; and if this occurs she will need more care, so that the ulcerations do not become large and putrid for her; and there is danger of death or of becoming barren. The following signs occur if there are ulcerations: when the purgation flows, it seems as if thorns are passing through the womb, and fever seizes the belly. These things tend to take hold; she has pain when the area below the navel is touched, as if you were touching a clean sinew-like ulcer; then strong pains fall upon the womb now and again, and fever, sometimes faint to the touch, and the lochial discharge at times flows with somewhat malignant character, purulent and foul-smelling. 36 (50) [5] These are the signs if there are ulcerations in the womb, and much care is needed. So these are the outcomes that pertain to this disease. But if the lochial purgation flows for the first three or four days and then suddenly ceases, this woman suffers affections akin to those of the former woman, but less severe; and if the disease changes course, she will change in the same direction; the disease will be more chronic and more faint than the former. If the woman follows a regimen, she survives if she is cared for fittingly. Concerning this disease the situation stands thus. If she is not purged after childbirth, the belly and the spleen and the legs swell, and she has fever, and shivering grips her, and pains dart toward the loins, and sometimes toward the viscera, and she becomes cold at the extremities, and has fever, and the pulse-beats are faint, and sometimes swift, sometimes rising, sometimes falling off. 37 [5] These things she suffers at the onset of the disease, and this is how it stands. If the time advances, the cheeks of the face become red. When it stands thus, give light foods; and if there is urgency, have her drink a purging drug downward; if she is of a bilious character, one that purges bile; if phlegmatic, one that purges phlegm. After this, let the womb be fomented with fragrant substances, and apply a softening pessary during the day. If the mouth of the womb is firm, fumigate the whole day and apply the softening pessaries; then wash with warm water and insert the lead dilators; after this, tie together granules of salt and myrrh in a piece of cloth, and the boiled pitch in wool, mixing in spices, equal parts of each, and make it the size of a small oak-gall; let it be applied for a day and a night; then leave off for three days, and let her be fomented with the same substances; apply also shelled berries enough for two doses and pepper, ground smooth, mixed with white Egyptian oil and the finest honey, packed in wool, wrapped around a feather, and apply it for a day and a night; and if it seems to you that she is sufficiently purged, it is better to leave off; but if it seems she still needs purging, leave off for two days, then again apply the one with the cupping-glass [a named preparation; cf. earlier in the work] for a day and a night; then melt together nard-oil and rose-oil as fragrant as possible and deer tallow, apply in wool for one day, and bathe with much warm water, as gently as possible; immediately after being purged by the purging agents and the warm water through the painful regions, let the mouth of the womb be anointed with goose fat and myrrh and warm pine-resin, and keep it warm; let her irrigate the womb the next day with wine and narcissus oil; if narcissus oil is not available, with wine alone; all of this should be done one day before the monthly periods. When the monthly periods occur, during the first three days, grinding Cyprian black pigment and sprinkling on granules of salt, knead into wool; let this be held inside the body for a short time, and fasting let her sip down unmixed fragrant wine. When the monthly periods stop, applying the one with pennyroyal [a named preparation; cf. earlier in the work] during the day, let her go to her husband; and if she conceives, she becomes healthy. Let her use foods during the purging. In addition to these things it helps to boil mercury-herb, mixing in leeks and garlic and cabbage and coriander seeds, and let her sip the juice; for the other foods, let her use sea-foods rather than meats; let her keep away from sweet things and oily things; let her always drink fasting the liquid from the resinous torch-wood, until she is purged; and during the monthly periods let her drink abundantly. If the postpartum discharge passes in women slightly less than what is needed — of the kind that happens when the mouths of the wombs are narrow and twisted, or the birth-passage is greatly closed up by inflammation — the woman has a sharp fever, and suffers heartburn, and her whole body aches, and she convulses, and the pain visits the joints of the hands and the legs and the loins, and she will feel pain in the region around the throat and the spine and the groins, and some of the limbs of the body will become without strength; then comes a gentle fever, a very visible shivering; and they vomit phlegmatic matter, bitter, sharp. 38 [5] This also is how it stands concerning this woman; and what will befall her, if she is cared for, is that she will become healthy; but if not, that she will become lame and without the use of the limbs of the body. The disease is not altogether unfavorable for fertility. If the womb becomes ulcerated and the postpartum discharge does not come as it should, she will suffer in every way; and if the ulcers are not great, with care she recovers quickly. The care of ulcers within the womb must be carried out precisely; for since they are situated in a tender, sensitive, and sinewy cavity, with many things sharing in it — the crown of the head, the gullet, the mind [γνώμη; anomalous in an anatomical list; possibly textual corruption or an unusual sense; see note] — they grow larger and become malignant, and do not readily wish to heal. If the mouths of her womb become narrow and do not relax enough for the postpartum purging, and become inflamed, if she is not cared for quickly, she will suffer in every way more severely, and there will be a foul odor, and the outlet swells; and if the womb is not inflamed, there passes out spontaneously something bad-smelling, livid or dark and clot-like, and the woman is purged of the postpartum discharge; but sometimes it does not pass out, and this signals death to the woman, unless someone quickly cuts a vein or softens the belly; it is better also to administer a clyster; and if she is prone to vomiting, also lead her to vomit; it is better still to make her urinate and sweat; the right moment for each of these, when needed, is best. If a woman is purged after childbirth slightly more than is proper — and this too occurs, when the mouths of the womb are wide and some of the blood vessels running beneath the womb have ruptured under the force of the passage of the infant — a thin fever will hold her, and warmth throughout the whole body, and sometimes also shivering and lack of appetite, and she will be altogether nauseated, and will be thin and weak and pale and swollen, and she will have no appetite; and if she eats or drinks anything, it will not undergo pepsis (digestive concoction); in some the belly gives way, and the bladder ruptures, and she has shivering more intensely. 39 [5] This also is how it stands concerning this woman. If after childbirth some part of the birth-passage is blocked — I have already seen this myself — if the mouth of the birth-passage is ulcerated, and after being ulcerated in the birth under the force of the passage of the child, it became something like an aphtha (ulcerous sore), and became greatly inflamed, and the lips came together against each other under the inflammation and took hold of one another, being ulcerated as they were. 40 [5] And a sticking together comes about and a mushroom-like growth, which has bound both lips together, since the purging has been cut off; and if the purging had been flowing, the ulcers would not have grown in this way; but as it is, it flows in and thickens into an unnatural flesh. Treat therefore as one would ulcers elsewhere in the body, and bring them to scarring; the place should be smooth and of uniform color. Phrontis suffered these things that women suffer who are not purged of the postpartum discharge, and in addition to these things she felt pain in the birth-passage, and by palpating she came to know that it had become blocked together and informed someone, and being cared for she was purged and became healthy and fertile; but if she had not been cared for, and the purging had not broken through of its own accord, the sore would have grown larger, and there was danger, if she had not been cared for, that the ulcers might become cancerous. If the postpartum purging in a woman were to rush upward toward the head, the chest, and the lung — for this too occurs — they die often at once, if it is held back; but if it passes through the mouth or the nostrils well, she escapes; and if the disease becomes somewhat more prolonged, the woman would suffer what has been described concerning the young woman in whom the first menses rushed upward; and the woman will survive longer than the young woman, and the sufferings will be milder for her, until the lung becomes fully suppurating. 41 [30] If the postpartum purging does not pass through the mouth, but having rushed upward turns away, the postpartum matter will be hidden and will not flow properly, and cough will seize her and breathlessness, and with the lung filled by the blood, the side will suffer greatly and the upper back, and when she coughs she will cough up dry matter, and at other times will spit up frothy matter; as time advances, spittle appears that is somewhat dark and turbid, and the chest has more fever than the rest of the body, as from the blood having warmed it; and the woman has fever, and her belly will be constipated, and she will have no appetite and will be sleepless, and will be nauseated, and she does not survive, but will die in twenty-one days for the most part. If the purging, having rushed upward, does not pass through the mouth, nor turns to the lung, it will turn in her toward the face, and the face will be very red, and the head heavy, and she will not be able to move it without pain, and her eyes will be very red, and a thin blood will flow from them; and in some women blood flows from the nostrils, and if this passes the disease becomes more prolonged; and to hear sharply with the ears is not possible from the disease; and she will have heartburn, and will belch, and will speak confusedly, and frenzied losses of mind occur; in some there is a boldness of eyes that squint; and she will suffer in all other ways, just as also when the purging turns to the lung, as has been said, except that she will not cough nor spit such things, nor will the upper back ache in the same way. If cared for, this woman recovers; but there is not much hope of survival; and if she indeed does survive, there will be loss of function of the eyes or of hearing for the most part [κώφωσις ὀφθαλμῶν; an unexpected construction; see note]. This is how this disease ends. If after childbirth flux seizes her and the food does not remain in the belly, grind black raisins and the inside of a sweet pomegranate, dissolve in dark wine, grate in goat's cheese, and sprinkle on roasted wheat barley-groats, and give well-blended. 43 [5] If she vomits blood after childbirth, the hair [θρίξ; fine fibrous tissue; the Greek term is literally 'hair'; see note] of the liver has been wounded, and pain visits the viscera, and the heart goes into spasm. She must be washed with much warm water, and apply whichever of the warm fomentations she best tolerates, and have her drink ass's milk for seven or five days; after this, have her drink the milk of a black cow fasting, if she is able, for forty days; and toward evening have her drink ground sesame. The disease is dangerous. How milk comes about I have stated in the account of the generation of the child in childbirth, and the other things similarly. 44 [5] If milk is extinguished, grind leeks, dissolve in water, and give to drink; and let her bathe in warm water, and let her eat leeks and cabbage; boil together also cytisus leaves, and let her sip the juice; have her drink the fruit and roots of fennel, and barley that has been hulled and butter boiled together and cooled, and give to drink. Good also are horse-fennel and horse-parsley and cytisus; all these together produce much milk and increase it; she-goats with rough fleece, and most of all their cheeses; it is good also to boil sage, pouring off the juice of juniper-berries or cedar-berries and pouring in wine, let her drink, and for the rest pour on oil and let her eat; and let her keep away from all sharp and salty and sour and raw vegetables. Cress drunk in wine is good; for it also purges the milk; and let her bathe in warm water, and drink warm. Give also chaste-tree fruit to drink in wine; and much milk is produced by the juice of beet and unwashed sesame and three-month barley, throwing them into a mortar, grinding all together, squeezing out through linen cloth, mixing in honey or amelanchier-berries, then giving to drink on dark wine. When a woman has given birth and has delivered the afterbirth, it is better to give those things by which the postpartum discharge is most purged: garlic boiled or roasted in wine and oil with small octopuses and cuttlefish on coals, whichever of these she wishes; and let her drink castor or nard; let her drink also rue in sweet dark wine, fasting or without wine; if it is not sweet, it is better to mix in honey; and boiled cabbage together with rue and mercury-herb, and let her drink some of the uterine seeds. 45 [10] If clotting occurs and pain comes in the lower belly, give boiled leeks, both wild and cultivated; make all things rich in fat; let her bathe every third day in calm weather, for cold is contrary to these women; and after the bath anoint her; it is better not to use very hot water. When the afterbirth does not immediately pass after the birth, pains arise in the lower belly and in the flanks, and rigors and fevers; and when the afterbirth passes, the woman also becomes healthy; it mostly putrefies; it passes out on the sixth or seventh day or even later still. 46 [15] To such a woman one must give drugs, of which I shall write, and have her hold her breath; the best of all is the plant artemisia, and dittany, and the flower of white violet; and the juice of silphium, most potent drunk in water to the amount of a Greek bean. If the afterbirth cannot make its escape, she should fast; then grind the leaves of the chaste-tree in wine and honey and pour on oil, warm it, and give to drink about a kotylē, and it will pass out. If the placenta is left behind in the womb — and this happens if the navel-cord breaks violently or if the midwife from ignorance cuts the navel-cord of the child before the placenta has come out of the womb — the womb draws the afterbirth upward, since it is slippery and fluid, and retains it within itself; for the placenta is stretched from the navel-cord of the child, and the navel-cord comes out of the womb afterward; for if it went out first, nourishment could not pass through it to the child, since it hangs from it. When a pregnant woman miscarries an embryo one or two months along and it cannot come out, but she is thin, at that time one must purge her body and fatten it; for the rotted embryos do not come out before the womb is strong and well-set. 48 [5] If the placenta is left behind in a woman, if the mouths of the womb are not wide, the purging passes in less than due measure, and the belly becomes hard and large, and there is chilling, and sharp fever, and pain throughout the whole body, and in the lower part of the belly below the navel, and there is a heaviness in the womb, and a twisting as if of an embryo being present, and with care she expels the placenta quickly, already putrefied, and recovers. If the womb becomes ulcerated after childbirth, treat with flower of roses; let her also irrigate with astringent substances. 49 [5] If the mouth becomes ulcerated and inflamed, mix myrrh and goose fat and white wax and frankincense with the hairs from under the belly of a hare, and apply, grinding fine, in wool. If the wombs become inflamed after childbirth, a mild fever holds the body, and a dimness; from the belly the fire never ceases; and she thirsts, and the hips ache, and the lower belly swells greatly, and the bowel is disturbed; and the stool is foul and malodorous, and a fierce fire seizes her, and loss of appetite holds her, and pain in the crown of the head, and the gullet cannot draw up from the belly drinks and foods, and it is unable to bring about pepsis (digestive concoction); and if they are not treated immediately, most of them die, and the bowel is responsible. 50 [10] Boil the leaves of elder as tender as possible in sifted wheat-groats, and let her sip it barely warm, and give hydromel and diluted wine, and apply cooling poultices to the lower belly, and bring food to the minimum, and make the bowel stand firm, and treat the head, and apply poultices to the hypochondrium. A drink for the womb: if she is in pain after childbirth, whenever she aches in the seat or anywhere else, grind juniper-berry or linseed and nettle, and give to drink. 51 [5] If she is in pain after childbirth, give terebinth resin and honey and warm wine to sip, and if the womb is inflamed this will stop it. If the region of the womb aches, grind the tender leaves of bitter almond and of olive, and cumin and the fruit or leaves of laurel, and anise and hedge-mustard and marjoram and natron, mix these and grind fine, and make pessaries for the womb. If there is inflammation and pain holds her, grind petals of roses, cinnamon, cassia, fine in the same vessel, pour on nard-oil, and forming lozenges of about one drachm's weight, make a new earthenware pot red-hot, set her to sit over it, and wrapping her in cloaks, fumigate toward the womb; this will stop the pains. If the wombs are in distress after childbirth, mild fever holds her, but within the lower belly is burning with fire, and sometimes it swells out to the hip, and pain grips the lower belly and the flanks, and the discharges are bilious and foul-smelling; and if the bowel does not stand firm, she dies suddenly. 52 [15] When it stands thus, one must cool the belly, taking care that she does not shiver; and let her drink, if it does not stand firm, the liquid from soaked groats or from bread, or ground meal; and let her sip — mixing the juice of vinous pomegranate with water, sprinkle on lentil groats, and boil this, mixing in lentil and cumin and salt and oil and vinegar — give this cold as a gruel, and sour lentil soup, and let her drink afterward strong Pramnian wine; from other foods she must abstain until the fever is resolved; and if it seems good, let her also bathe; if she is weak, let her drink groats of barley; if she is feebler still, in cold water; bring her light food, such as will not cause straining, when the fever lets up. The disease is acute and deadly. If the wombs of a woman in childbed become inflamed, the belly blazes up and becomes large, and toward the hypochondrium a choking holds her. 53 [5] When it stands thus, apply a poultice of sea-moss, the kind that is put on fish, beaten in a mortar; and mix in raw wheat-flour and grapevine ash and flaxseed that has been roasted and ground, and knead these up with vinegar and oil, making a kind of thick kykeon (mixed drink); boil these until they become like fat, and apply this as hot as possible, and if needed let her sit in a hip-bath. If in a woman in childbed the wombs become inflamed, they swell, and whenever the postpartum matter remains within, they are under tension in secret, and this occurs when they become thickened by cold. 54 [5] For these women, if they are being chilled, warm them; but if they are burning with fire and the cold lets go, make a pessary that is opposed to inflammation, and bathe and fumigate and bring on drugs of which I shall write, and draw steam into the mouth and into the nostrils. If there is choking, boil lentils in vinegar and salt and much marjoram, and produce a drawing effect, and let her eat mercury-herb, and let her sip thin ground meal in the juice. 56 [5] As soon as she gives birth, before the pain takes hold, first give of the drugs that relieve the womb of pain, and let her take foods that promote evacuation. If the belly becomes heated, give a clyster as quickly as possible. If the wombs fill up with phlegm, winds arise in the wombs, and the monthly periods come in less quantity, white, phlegmatic; and sometimes there is thin blood, unmixed, full of membranes, and in some it swirls about, and appears three times in the month, and she is unwilling to lie with her husband because of the moisture, nor does she have the impulse to do this, and she becomes thin; she suffers pain in the lower belly and the loins and the groins; and if the discharge bites and ulcerates the surrounding parts, one should say the flux is chronic. 57 [15] And if it passes in great quantity, give a lentil-preparation with hellebore to vomit; then pour into the nostrils, and have her drink a purging drug downward; let her abstain from sharp foods; if she is heavy and chilled and numbness holds her, give milk and fragrant wine; let her drink fasting St. John's wort, linseed, sage in fragrant diluted wine; and irrigate the womb with the one made with wine-lees [a named preparation; cf. earlier in the work]; and if they are not ulcerated, leaving off two or three days, irrigate with the one made with berries [a named preparation]; after this, with astringent things; but if they are ulcerated, let her wash with the decoction from myrtle and laurel, and let her be anointed with the one made with silver flower. The disease is difficult, and few escape. If the cotyledons are full of phlegm, the monthly periods become less, and if she conceives she miscarries when the embryo becomes stronger; for it does not gain strength, but runs off. 58 [5] You would recognize it by this: she becomes moist, and the matter running off is mucous and viscous, as though carried from the bowel, and it does not bite, and during the monthly periods, when she has finished being purged of blood, for two and three days mucous discharges come from the wombs, and shivering holds her, and a heat not sharp, yet without ceasing. Irrigate this woman with the liquid from wild figs and with those things by which water is purged, twice and three times; when she is purged, let her use astringents for the rest; apply the soft pessaries by which phlegm is purged, and fumigate the womb with the one made with laurel [a named preparation], and irrigate with the one made with vinegar [a named preparation], and fumigate, when the monthly periods stop, with aromatics; and then she must fast and abstain from bathing, let her come together with her husband, and take food and wine in small amounts, and keep warm, and wrap fleece bandages around the legs, and anoint with oil. If dropsy arises in the wombs, the monthly periods become fewer and worse and cease early, and the lower belly swells, and the breasts are firm, not soft, and the milk is poor, and she seems to be with child; and from these signs you will know that it is dropsy; and it shows also at the mouth of the wombs, for to one touching it appears thin and moist; and rigors and fever take hold. 59 [5] As the time grows longer, pain grips the lower belly, the flanks, the hollows of the sides, and the groins. This disease arises from miscarriage, and from other causes as well, and when the monthly flows are suppressed. One must bathe with abundant hot water and apply warm compresses if pain persists. When it ceases, one must administer a purging drug downward and fumigate the womb with dung-vapor; then apply the suppository with cantharid, and leave an interval of two or three days. If strength holds, irrigate with netōpon-oil; and if the belly becomes slack and the fevers cease and the monthly flows proceed in due measure, she should sleep with her husband and continue with the suppositories; and during the middle of the day let her drink, fasting, the bark of rock-samphire, five black berries of sweetroot, the fruit of elderberry in wine; and let her eat as much mercury-herb as possible, and garlic both raw and cooked, and use the soft things toward sleep, and octopus, and the other soft things, sea-creatures rather than meats. If she gives birth, she recovers. If dropsy (hydrōps) forms in the womb, the monthly flows become scantier and worse and come at longer intervals; she carries for two months or a little more; the belly swells, and the pubic area, and the shins, and the lower back. When considerable time has passed and she is carrying, she miscarries and expels, and water pours out along with it, and the woman dies in most cases. The blood is corrupted and they become dropsical. 60 [10] For this one, let her drink milk and drink poppy preparations, until the embryo is able to move. But even before that point, as a rule, it is corrupted and aborted, and the womb flows with blood and water. She suffers this no more from exertion than otherwise. By this you would know it is hydrōps: if on probing with the finger you find the opening of the womb thin and full of moisture. If in such a woman the embryo is corrupted not at the beginning but already at two months, and is suffocated, and the lower belly swells up, and is painful to the touch like an ulcer, and great fever and gnashing take hold of her, and severe pain of the genitals and the lower belly and the flanks, and sharp and urgent pain of the lower back—when she is in this state, bathe her in hot water if pain grips, and bring warm compresses, trying whatever she most accepts, and administer a purging drug downward; leave an interval of such time as seems sufficient to you; irrigate and fumigate; and soak cyclamen in a cloth with honey and apply it to the mouth of the womb; and scrape cypress-wood, soak it in water, and apply in the same way, but for a shorter duration and at longer intervals, inasmuch as it bites and tears more; and fashion a tin probe and insert it, and similarly with the finger; and give her to drink whatever drink she most accepts; and let her lie with her husband as much as the occasions allow. For if she conceives the seed and becomes pregnant, what was previously lurking is purged out along with the rest, and in this way she would most recover health. If a woman becomes dropsical as though from the spleen being watery and enlarged—and the spleen becomes watery from the following condition: when fever takes hold and does not release the person, and strong thirst grips her and she drinks and does not vomit it up; for the part that passes through to the bladder is discharged as urine, while the rest the spleen draws into itself from the belly, being porous and sponge-like and lying along the belly—and if under these conditions she does not sweat, nor does the bladder filter it through, nor does the belly relax, the spleen is distended by the drink, and the more so if the drink is water, and if someone were to press upon it, it is soft like down, though sometimes it resists pressure; and being swollen and overfilled it releases into the body through the vessels, and especially into the omentum and the regions around the belly and the legs—for one part of the body discharges into another when each has more than its due measure and cannot contain it. 61 [10] Dropsy follows from this continually, once the spleen has learned to draw into itself, being by nature porous and loose. In some women this is the beginning of the disease even without fever, if a burning heat becomes established in the belly as though phlegm were descending into it, and the person cannot restrain her thirst, and neither the bladder nor the belly filters through urine and dung in due fashion, nor does the person keep to a fitting diaita (regimen / ordering of life). If she tends toward the dropsical condition, the monthly flows come on suddenly and in abundance, sometimes scant, and become sometimes like water from meats if one were to rinse out bloody flesh, sometimes somewhat stronger, and they do not clot; and breathlessness grips her before the monthly flows pass, and pain in the spleen, and more so when she eats something sweet; and the belly rises and is large. When she eats more than she is accustomed to, she is distressed in the belly and pains in the lower back come and go, and fever takes hold of her after a short interval. When she has been purged, she seems to be easier compared to before; then she returns to the same state. If she is cared for properly, she will be well. If not, the flux will appear and will flow throughout all the time little by little like ichor, and requires more care. If the flux does not supervene, but the womb, being swollen from the preceding conditions, does not relax the monthly flows, her belly will be large and there will be a heaviness in it as in a woman who is pregnant, and it seems as if a child were moving inside her belly, because the womb is full of water and the water is in motion—for the water sloshes about in it now one way and now another as in a wineskin; and she feels pain when pressed below the navel, and the collarbones and the chest and the face and the eyes grow thin, and the nipples become raised. In some women the belly and the legs fill with water, in others only one of these; if both fill, there is no hope of the woman's surviving; if only one of them, there are slight hopes, if she is cared for and is not too worn out. This disease is a prolonged one. All these things happen more to women who have not given birth, though they also happen often to women who have given birth. They are dangerous, as has been said, and for the most part acute and severe and difficult to understand—for this reason: women partake of the diseases, and sometimes do not themselves know what they are suffering from, not until they have become experienced in the diseases through their monthly flows and are older. Then necessity and time teach them the cause of the diseases. And sometimes in those who do not know from what they are suffering, the diseases get ahead of them and become incurable, before the physician has been properly taught by the sick woman from what she is suffering. For they are ashamed to say—even if they know—and it seems to them shameful, through inexperience and lack of knowledge. 62 [5] At the same time the physicians too err, in not inquiring accurately into the cause of the disease, but treating as they would male diseases; and I have seen many already destroyed by such conditions. But one must immediately inquire accurately into the cause. For the healing of women's diseases differs greatly from that of men's. If the womb is ulcerated, blood and pus are discharged, and a heavy smell arises, and sharp pain seizes in the flanks and the groins and the lower belly, and the pain travels upward to the hollows of the sides and the ribs and the shoulder-blades, and sometimes it reaches as far as the collarbones; and she is bitten, and has severe pain in the head, and her mind wanders. As time passes the whole body swells, weakness takes hold of her, and fainting, and a thin fever, and chilling; the legs swell most. 63 [5] The disease seizes from miscarriage, in a case where a woman has aborted and the child, having putrefied inside, is not cleaned out, and the mouth of the womb has fever; it also seizes from the fluxes, and if they are sharp and bilious against the womb, they bite. If you find her in such a state, when the pains grip, bathe her with abundant hot water and apply warm compresses wherever the pain holds; and if the pains are in the upper parts, if the woman is strong, fumigate her whole body and give a purging drug to drink downward; and when the season of the year allows, boil whey and give it to drink for five days, if she is able; if there is no whey, boil ass's milk and give it to drink for three or four days; after the milk-drinking, restore her with water and suitable foods: lamb's meat, tender, young, and fowl, and beet, and gourd; let her abstain from salt and sharp things and all sea-foods and pork and beef and goat-meat; let her eat bread; if fainting takes hold of her and she lacks strength and grows cold, let her take gruel. There are some who give milk to drink to those suffering headache, because they have headache, and others water, because they are fainting. I think the opposite: if they have headache and there is contact with the diaphragm, water is fitting; when she is bitten and it is sharp, milk is beneficial for these. When it seems to you she has strength, irrigate the womb—first with the liquid from wine-lees, then after leaving an interval of three or four days irrigate with the one containing warm cabbage-water, and again after leaving an interval of three days irrigate with the one containing pikерion; and if after doing these things the womb heals, irrigate with the one containing pomegranate rind. Smear upon the ulcers: silver flower, oak-gall, myrrh, frankincense, the fruit of Egyptian acacia, wild vine-flower, chrysocolla, scale, filings of lotus-wood, saffron, and Egyptian alum burned—let each of these be one equal part, but make the alum and the oak-gall and the saffron one portion of all; grind and mix all smooth, dilute in sweet white wine, then boil until it reaches the consistency of honey; with this smear twice a day, after washing with warm water; boil also in the water rock-rose and sage. And when it seems to you, as you do these things, that she is more at ease, give first a day of boiled goat's milk to drink, then give cow's milk in the same way as in the former cases; after the milk-drinking, build her up with food as much as possible and contrive that she becomes pregnant. For she will recover. As a rule they escape from this disease, but become infertile; older women rather less so. After the drugs let her drink flaxseed parched, and sesame, and nettle-fruit, and the bitter root of sweetroot, ground in fragrant dark diluted wine. If the womb is ulcerated, and blood and pus and ichor flow—for when the womb putrefies, a disease arises from it, and the lower belly rises, and she becomes thin, and it is painful to the touch like an ulcer, and fever and gnashing grip her, and sharp and urgent pain in the genitals and the pubic region and the lower belly and the hollow of the side and the flanks; the disease seizes most of all from childbirth, if something lacerated within rots, and from miscarriage, and otherwise spontaneously. 64 [5] If you find such cases, bathe her in abundant hot water, and where pain holds apply the warm compresses and a sponge from hot water, and irrigate, keeping away from sharp and astringent things; but among the softer ones mix in as seems timely to you. Pound the fruit of flax and of elderberry, mix with honey and make a compound, and use this. Wash with warm water, and taking a sponge or soft wool, dipping it in warm water, cleanse the genitals and the ulcers; then dipping the sponge or the wool again in unmixed wine, use in the same way; then anoint with this compound as many times as seems timely; then mixing resin and pig-fat together with the compound, smear with the finger many times by day and by night. After this, parch and pound and sift flaxseed; pound white poppy in barley-meal and sift; roast goat's cheese after scraping off the filth and the brine, and mix in the pikеrion and barley-groats, then make one measure of the compound and the cheese and the barley-meal, and give this to drink fasting in the morning in dry wine diluted; toward evening mixing a thick kukeōn, give it, and give to drink whatever of the women's remedies she most accepts. As long as blood flows abundantly and sharp pains hold and leave off for only a short time, do these things. When the ulcer is smaller and dull pains come on at longer intervals, give purging drugs to drink by which she is to be purged downward rather than upward, leaving an interval of such time as seems opportune; and fumigate with gentle fumigations, seating her raised up, whenever each time it seems opportune. Doing these things she recovers. But the disease is rather dull and deadly, and few escape it. If the ulceration is severe, blood and pus are discharged, and a heavy smell arises, and when pain comes on, all around the flux it becomes as in labor-pains, and when the time comes the legs and feet swell, and physicians treat it as dropsy—but it is not that. 65 [5] If you take such a case, first bathe with hot water and warm her, and irrigate with sharp, soft, and astringent things, with water and wine; boil polycarpum and polycnemum and honey together, then dipping wool into this, smear the genitals; and smear in resin and honey and pig's oil. Give to drink flax-fruit, and sesame parched and butter and goat's cheese and barley-meal—give all these to drink fasting in wine; toward evening pour in much honey. As long as the blood is being discharged and sharp pains hold and leave off for only a little, do this. When less is coming and the pains are more dull and hold at longer intervals, give a purging drug downward and leave an interval. Doing these things she recovers; but childbearing is no longer possible. As for all the ulcerations that arise in the womb from miscarriage or from some other cause, one must consider the whole body in treating all of them, according to whatever treatment seems needed—whether it seems to you that the woman should be treated with regard to the whole body or with regard to the womb itself. 66 [45] You will know whether it is from the womb itself as follows: that which comes from the ulcers themselves provides a discharge that is pus-like and thick, while that not from the ulcers is thin and ichor-like. As for the thin fluxes, these one must treat with drugs, giving both upward and downward, first upward; and if after the drug-course the fluxes become less and are more manageable, after an interval drug again in the same way. After the drug-course, maintain a diaita of the sort in which the woman will be as dry as possible; this will be the case if you fumigate the whole body every third or fourth day and make her vomit immediately after the fumigations; after the vomiting and fumigations maintain a diaita of abstaining from baths, drinking little, and eating bread only; as for drink, nothing except unmixed dark wine, and no vegetables. But when you are preparing the vomiting, then one must fill her with many sharp vegetables and much food and whatever relish they want, and fill her with much diluted wine, and bathe her with much hot water after the fumigations. This is the treatment for fluxes of this kind. Better still is to purge both ways, both by vomiting and by drawing upward; and a drying diaita is better, and abstaining from baths. The womb must be treated as follows: first fumigate it by boiling the leaves of elderberry in water; then after the fumigation, irrigate with the sediment lye; if there is putrefaction in the ulcers and the discharge is foul-smelling, use the lye more undiluted; if there is nothing of that sort, more diluted. After the sediment, use water; in the water steep myrtle and laurel and sage; after this irrigate with undiluted warm white wine. When the parts are already being bitten by the irrigations, then the ulcers are clean. Irrigate then with more diluted lye and dark wine; after the wine, melt fresh pig's fat, mix in oil—of goose if available, if not, of some other bird, preferably domestic fowl, and if not, the old oil from olives—use this warm for irrigation, pouring it into a second syringe after the wine; and to the mouth of the womb, whether ulcerated or not, apply pledgets of the softening preparations; and if they cause a burning when applied, have the woman remove them and wash with warm water of the same kind as was used for the irrigation. If with this diaita the fluxes do not cease but become less, and she is bitten severely, and what flows off is bile and brine, and not only the inner parts but also the outer are ulcerated, one must change the diaita and moisten her entirely, so that the fluxes will be as watery as possible and least biting, with many warm baths, with barley-bread, with all boiled fatty vegetables, with cartilaginous fish cooked with onions and coriander in sweet brine, cooked rich, with all boiled meats except ox and goat, thoroughly cooked in dill and fennel, with honey-colored diluted wine, tawny, in greater quantity, with milk-drinking together with sweet wine. For the rest, proceed regarding the irrigations according to the method described above. This is now the treatment for such cases. For those in which the discharge is pus-like and thick, there is no need to disturb the whole body; instead make all the treatment from irrigations, using the same irrigations as was previously described in the same way. 66 (50) [5] Other irrigations will be recorded here as well. Treatment of ulcers: fresh deer's fat as a suppository; one must immediately irrigate with sapa-wine, and best of all with white-lead if there are ulcers, and with narcissus oil. Use the softest foods and not sharp ones. If the ulcers are filthy and spreading and eating into the nearest tissue, cleanse, and bring forth new flesh, and bring the flesh to scarring; for it is easily relaxed and does not become malignant; bathe frequently. If a woman suffers a great wound from miscarriage, or has had the womb ulcerated by sharp suppositories—as many women always do both on their own and under treatment—and the embryo is corrupted and the woman is not purged, but her womb has become severely inflamed and has closed off and is unable to let through the purging, except at the first moment together with the embryo—if she is treated quickly she will recover, but will be infertile. 67 [5] If the lochia burst spontaneously and the ulcers heal, she will be infertile in this way too. If the purging occurs but the ulcers are not cared for, there is a danger that they will become putrid. If the purging comes while she is worn out, she dies. And if the womb is badly ulcerated during childbirth when the embryo does not proceed in the natural way, they will suffer the same as the woman whose womb has been ulcerated by abortion; and the disease has the same turns and ends, whether the womb is ulcerated from abortion or from childbirth. And if all the lochia have passed, she will suffer less, unless the ulcers are large; and if cared for, she recovers quickly. One must attend to care promptly, if ulcers are present in the womb; for being in soft tissue they grow, and become putrid quickly. Treat the ulcers as also those in the rest of the body: they must be reduced in inflammation and cleansed and filled in and brought to scarring. Give water, not wine; foods rather plain, and not much. As for cases in miscarriage where injuries occur and cannot be resolved—whether because the whole embryo or its parts are too large, or because they are smaller and lying crossways and immovable—if the embryo is proceeding in the natural position, give one of the drugs which I will describe, first bathing with very hot water in abundance; and if it is willing to come forward but does not come forward easily even though in the natural position, for such cases apply a sneezing agent, and pinch the nostril and make her sneeze, and press the mouth, so that the sneeze will work as forcefully as possible. 68 [30] One should also employ shakings. One would shake in this way: take a sturdy, tall bed and, having laid bedding under, recline the woman on her back; bind the chest, the armpits, and the arms to the bed with a broad, soft band or strap, and gird them fast; bend the legs together and hold them by the ankles. When you have made ready, prepare a bundle of soft brushwood or something similar in size such that it will not let the bed be thrown to the ground — so that the feet at the head-end touch the ground — and tell her to grip the bed with her hands; hold the bed raised at the head-end so that it tilts down toward the feet, taking care that the woman does not pitch forward headlong. When all this is being done and the bed is raised aloft, slide the brushwood underneath from behind, and let it be set as upright as possible so that when the bed is tipped the feet do not touch the ground but remain inside the brushwood; let a man stand at each foot-post on either side and lift, so that the bed falls straight, evenly, and uniformly and there is no jerk. Shake most of all with the onset of a labour pain; and if the foetus is being expelled, stop immediately; if not, take a pause, then shake again, and carry her aloft on the swinging bed. This is the procedure when the foetus is positioned straight and according to nature. One must first anoint with a moist wax-salve; for all such conditions around the womb this is the best, and foment with mallow-water and fenugreek, or rather the broth of husked emmer wheat. One must steam-bathe the perineum and the genitals up to the groin, and the woman should sit in the steam-bath especially when the labour pains are most troublesome, and give no other thought to anything else. The practitioner should open the os gently with her fingers, doing this with care, and draw the navel cord together with the foetus. Whatever parts are doubled over and folded and lie in the os of the womb — whether the foetus be living or dead — push them back and turn again, so that the foetus proceeds according to nature, head-first. 69 [5] Whenever you wish to push back or turn, you must recline the woman on her back, place something soft under the hips, and under the feet of the bed, so that the foot-end will be considerably higher, something must be placed beneath; and let the hips be higher than the head, and let no pillow be placed under the head — these are the precautions to take. When the foetus has been pushed back and is rotating this way and that, restore the bed and the hips to their natural position, removing what was placed under the feet of the bed and the stones and what was under the hips; place a pillow under the head; treat such cases in this manner. For living foetuses that present an arm or a leg — or both — outside, when the sign first appears one must push them back inside in the manner described above, turn the foetus head-down, and bring it onto the road. And for foetuses that are folded, crouching either into the flank or into the hip during labour, these must be straightened out, turned, and the woman seated in warm water until she is warmed through. For dead foetuses presenting a leg or arm outside, the best course, if possible, is to push them back inside and turn head-down; but if this is not possible and the foetus is swollen, cut in the following manner: split the head with a small knife and crush it so it causes no obstruction, using the crushing instrument; draw out the bones with the bone-extractor and, having placed the hook beside the collar-bone so that it catches, draw out — not all at once, but little by little, alternately releasing and forcing again. 70 [5] When you have drawn these parts out but the foetus is still at the shoulders, cut both arms at the joints together with the shoulders; and when you have removed these, if it is possible to proceed, draw out the rest without difficulty; but if it does not yield, split the whole chest up to the throat, taking care not to cut along the belly and lay bare any part of the foetus's interior, for the stomach and the intestines and excrement will come out; and if any of these protrudes, matters become considerably more troublesome. Crush the ribs and bring the shoulder-blades together, and after this the rest of the foetus will pass easily, unless the belly is already swollen; for if there is something of that kind, it is better to puncture the belly of the foetus gently, for only wind will come out of the belly, and thus it will pass easily. If the arm or leg of a dead foetus has protruded, if possible push both back inside and prepare the foetus — this is best; but if it is not possible to do this, cut off whatever is outside as high up as can be managed, and having pressed back the remainder, push forward and turn the foetus head-down. Whenever you are about to turn or cut into the child, you must trim your own nails short; and the small knife with which you cut should be more curved than straight, and cover it head-on with the index finger, probing and guiding and being cautious, so that you do not touch the womb. Concerning the conception of a mole, this is the cause: when the menses, being abundant, conceive a small and diseased seed, no genuine conception results; the belly is full as in a pregnant woman, yet nothing moves in the belly, and no milk comes in the breasts, though the breasts are turgid. 71 [20] This woman remains in this condition for two years, often even three. If one solid mass of flesh forms, the woman perishes; for she cannot survive it. If many pieces form, much blood and fleshy matter bursts out through the genitals; and if it is moderate, she is saved; if not, seized by the flux, she perishes. Such is this disease. One must judge by the solid bulk, and by the fact that nothing moves in the belly; for a male foetus has its movement at three months, a female at four months; so when this time has passed and there is no movement, this is clearly the condition. There is also this important sign: no milk forms in the breasts. One should in most cases not treat this woman; if otherwise, treat her with prior warning. First apply heat-treatment to the whole body; then give an enema at the rectum, so that much blood rushes down; for perhaps you might set in motion what seems to be the foetus — the consolidated mass — after the woman has been thoroughly warmed by the drug. Also give an enema through the womb to draw off blood; if that fails, use pessaries made from the blister-beetle, the most potent ones, and give Cretan dittany to drink in wine; if that fails, also the beaver's testicle; and apply a cupping-vessel to her from behind at the flanks, and draw off as much blood as possible; apply it in a position you judge as closely as possible aligned with the womb. This much has been said about diseases arising from the lochia; the dangers in them are not small, for they are acute and change rapidly, and women in first labour suffer more than those who are experienced in childbirth. 72 [5] In a healthy woman the lochia flow: about one and a half Attic kotylai at first, or a little more, then less in proportion to this, until they cease; they flow like blood from sacrificial animals, if the woman is healthy, as I said, and is going to be well, and it congeals quickly. In healthy women the purging after birth is generally completed: in the case of a girl, the longest purging is forty-two days, though she is without danger even purging for twenty-five days; in the case of a boy, the longer purging is thirty days, though she is without danger even for twenty days. In women whose foetuses have miscarried, the purging is proportionate to these days: fewer days for those lost at a younger stage, more for those at a more advanced stage. The conditions regarding the lochia are the same for a woman whose foetus has miscarried and for one who has given birth, unless the child aborted is a very young infant; and those who miscarry are in greater danger; for miscarriages are harder than births, since the foetus cannot be expelled except by force — by drug, by potion, by food, by pessary, or by some other means — and force is harmful; for in such a case there is danger that the womb will be ulcerated or inflamed, and this is dangerous. How milk is formed I have set out in the work on the nature of the child in labour; when a woman conceives, the menses by and large do not flow, except in some women a little; for the sweetest part of the moisture from foods and drinks turns toward the breasts and is drawn out through suckling; and of necessity the rest of the body becomes more emptied and the blood is less full — this is how it comes about. 73 [5] Some women are by nature without milk, and their milk fails them before the right time; these are by nature firm-fleshed and dense in flesh, and insufficient moisture travels from the belly up to the breasts, the passage being dense. To draw down the menses: two draughts of elaterium; sheep's kidney-fat is mixed in equal amount to the elaterium, taking care not to crumble it; make two pessaries. Or grind the black-seed from wheat with water, mix it into a paste, and make two pessaries; apply these before the days on which the menses are expected to come; if they do not pass out, they cause chills and fevers. 74 [45] Soft preparations by which purging and expulsion take place with water and sand, which bring on the menses if they are not long-standing, and soften the os: narcissus, myrrh, cumin, frankincense, wormwood, galingale — equal parts of each, but four parts of narcissus — mixed with raw flax combings; grind these with boiled marjoram in water, make into a suppository, and apply. Or mix also cyclamen to the size of an anklebone; and grind flower of copper to the size of a bean, moisten with honey, make a suppository, and apply. Or pennyroyal, myrrh, frankincense, pig's bile and ox bile in honey — stir together and mold into a suppository. If the menses do not come, let her mix goose-oil, nard-oil, and resin together and apply, wrapping in wool. A gentle cleansing pessary: take a dried fig, cook it through, press out the moisture, and grind it as smooth as possible, then apply it in wool with rose-perfume. The sharp: half of each of cabbage and rue, ground; use in the same way. A cleansing preparation: goose marrow, or ox, or deer, to the size of a bean; pour over it rose-perfume and woman's milk; grind as a medicinal preparation is ground; then with this anoint the os of the womb. Another gentle pessary: goose marrow to the size of a walnut, wax to the size of a bean, mastic resin or terebinth resin to the size of a bean; melt these in rose-perfume over a gentle fire, prepare like a wax-salve; then anoint the os of the womb with this while warm, and moisten the pubic region. Another cleansing: wheat flour, three obols of myrrh, the same of saffron, one obol of castoreum; grind these with iris-perfume and let her apply; or mix nettle-seed and mallow juice and goose fat together and apply. Another cleansing pessary, when the menses do not appear: grind storax and marjoram smooth, mix together, pour over goose-oil, and apply. Another cleansing pessary to purge the womb and empty out blood: grind wormwood root smooth, mix with honey and goose-oil, apply. Another cleansing pessary: remove the head, legs, and wings of the blister-beetle; grind the rest and mix with the inside of a fig — let the fatty part be double; this inflates the womb, and this is also best for women who are exhausted. Or grind the leaves of mercury-plant smooth and make into pessaries; this brings a thin, bilious purging. And artemisia acts like mercury-plant and purges better. Black hellebore ground smooth in water also brings what resembles water from meat. And alum and resin do the same. Galingale, wormwood, birthwort, cumin, salt, honey — grind all these together and apply. And hellebore in sweet wine, mixed with chaff-flour and wheat-flour kneaded with honey, apply in wool. Pessaries, if the oral purgatives do not purge: mercury-plant, myrrh, white-violet, onion as sharp as possible, and black-seed, and mint, if she can bear it — mix together and apply. Pungent pessaries that draw blood: five blister-beetles, minus legs, wings, and head, mixed together with myrrh and frankincense and honey; then dip into rose-oil or Egyptian perfume-oil and let her apply it by day, and when it stings, remove it; dip again into woman's milk and Egyptian perfume, and let her apply this at night, and rinse with fragrant water, and then apply fat. 74 (50) [5] The blister-beetle would be appropriate: if small, without wings, legs, and head; if large, use half; mix the same things as with the cantharis-beetles and apply similarly. If a milder preparation is needed, mix with the blister-beetle wine and Ethiopian cumin, raisins, and ground seseli and anise, and bring the wine to a boil; then pour it off and grind smooth, and mold into lozenges of about a drachma each; apply these, mixing in myrrh and frankincense, preparing them in the same way as with the cantharis-beetles. Or grind black-seed from wheat smooth with honey and make into a suppository-shape; coat it over with a feather. An effective pessary: add the juice of mandrake and wild gourd in woman's milk. Or burn dry wine-lees from old white wine and quench in wine. Also wild gourd, mercury-plant, natron, and hedge-mustard. Mandrake root draws down more quickly; cantharis-beetle, thyme, bay-berry, iris-perfume, bay-perfume; mix the sap of spurge, stir and remove the viscous residue, give to the size of a bitter-vetch seed, and make the best pessary from it; if it flows too much, let her wash out with wine. Or dissolve roasted copper, take up warm in wool, and apply. A conception-promoting preparation: a cup of cedar-oil, four drachmas of ox-fat; grind smooth and mix together, make into pessaries, apply fasting, and let her remain with it applied and fast through the day; let her apply it twice, in the morning and in the afternoon, after the menses; and after dinner let her bathe and sleep with her husband. 75 [45] Or crush black-seed, bind it in a cloth, add goose-oil, and give to apply. Another conception-promoting preparation: to treat a woman so that she conceives; take old urine and iron slag, a palmful of fragments; then seat the woman on a stool, cover both her body and head, place a foot-basin beneath, and throw in the fragments heated three times red-hot — let the urine be about a chous in amount — and steam-bathe her with these for about thirty steam-baths; when you have given the steam-bath, rub the head with the urine in which she was steamed, quenching the stones again and heating up the steam again; after this wash the head with as much water as possible, boiling in the water as much pennyroyal and chaste-tree as possible; do this for seven days; three times during each of these steam-baths give fumigation before rubbing; after the bath let her anoint herself with bay-oil. After dinner, having eaten onions dipped in honey, and having drunk about four kotylai of warm honey-water, then, after eating, waiting a little, let her vomit; and reclining on her back, let her hold pennyroyal also in her ears and in her nostrils; and a sixth of a choenix of leavened bread, crumbled into broth of fowl containing about a half-shell of celery, let her take; and give again the same at dinner; do the same for seven days. Then for seven days give an enema to the belly; let the enema be: four drachmas of resin, a broad shallow-cup of honey, an equal amount of oil, broth of fine wheat, foam of natron, seven eggs; eight kotylai of the enema, of which three are of gruel-broth; let her take the enema lying on her side, and wash with a little water. Let her also apply seven suppositories daily, and let her keep them in until they melt; let them be of frankincense, natron, galbanum, boiled honey; let her use the same food. Fumigation: pennyroyal, donkey-hairs, wolf's dung; throw on as much as possible over the charcoal, and seat and wrap her around, and fumigate, taking care not to burn her. If a woman who has given birth before cannot give birth any longer, grind natron, resin, myrrh, Ethiopian cumin, and perfume together, and apply. Or let her apply dry pennyroyal in a linen cloth; and let her drink pennyroyal when she is about to sleep. Another conception-promoting preparation: one must regulate the diaita — the ordering of life — of a woman who needs to conceive, and give her to eat and drink the same as a woman in childbed; and for the woman's husband, everything except garlic, and onion, and bean-pottage, and silphium juice, and all things that cause wind — let him abstain from these. A poured-in conception-promoting preparation, if she is not conceiving: milk of a woman nursing a boy, fresh pomegranate seeds ground and the juice pressed out, and the perineum of a sea-turtle burnt and ground; pour this into the genitals. A poured-in conception-promoting preparation for a woman not conceiving: milk and resin and the juice of sweet pomegranate, mix these together with honey and pour all in. Conception-promoting preparation: let her grind the fruit or the flower of the white bulb with honey, wrap in wool, and apply to the womb for three days; on the fourth day, grind broad-leafed wild mallow, mix with woman's milk, wrap in wool, and apply; then let her sleep with her husband; let her first sip pennyroyal boiled in flour-gruel and drink pennyroyal thin in wine. 75 (50) [85] If this is not heeded, take fragrant fleabane, pound it, press out the juice, mix with wine, and let her drink it fasting. Another conception-promoting preparation: let her similarly drink asparagus-fruit in wine. Another conception-promoting preparation: grind a woman's placenta and the heads of larvae, dissolve Egyptian alum in goose fat, and apply in wool to the os of the womb. Another for the same purpose: verdigris of copper, flower of copper — half an obol each; male frankincense, split alum, vine-blossom, oak-gall, myrrh, pomegranate rind, resin, pennyroyal — one obol each; grind in honey and apply twice a day for three days; if it is perhaps too sharp, mix in goose fat and roasted natron; give wine, avoiding any harshness in it. Another conception-promoting preparation: take caterpillars with a tail, three or four of them, and fine marjoram, grind in rose-perfume, and apply to the os of the womb. Another conception-promoting preparation: grind purslane with goose fat and myrrh and leek-seed and ox bile, wrap in wool, and apply to the os of the womb. If the menses are abundant but she does not conceive — a conception-promoting preparation: flower of copper, two obols, and similarly of split alum; grind smooth in honey, then soak it up in wool, bind the wool in linen with thread, apply as far inside as possible; let the thread hang out; then when she is well purged, remove it, and bring wine with fragrant things to a boil, putting in myrtle-leaves, and let her wash herself out with this, and go to her husband. Conception-promoting pessary: honey, myrrh, tamarisk fruit, liquid resin, goose fat; grind everything together, wrap in wool, and let her apply. A highly effective conception-promoting pessary capable of opening the womb when it has closed and she cannot conceive, and of purging out moisture: take small spikenard, mastic, cumin, galingale, wild gourd, red natron, Egyptian salt, and large spikenard; make all these smooth, strain through linen; take honey, boil over a gentle fire; when it boils, mix in wax and resin; then having mixed everything together and poured oil over, remove from fire, warm, and apply to the womb wrapped in coiled wool, until she is purged. Another conception-promoting preparation: if you wish a woman to conceive, let her use the cleansing preparations on an empty stomach, and if she needs to go to her husband, let her take ten black bay-berries, three drachma-weights of frankincense, and a little cumin, ground in honey, roll into fine-woolly wool, and apply once on the same day, and remove once over four days; then let her fast for an equal number of days. A contraceptive: if she should not need to conceive, dissolve copper ore to the size of a bean in water and give to drink; and for a year, broadly speaking, she does not conceive. 77 [5] Hasteners of birth. For a woman in difficult labor: scrape the root of laurel, or the berries, about half an oxybaphon's worth, warm in water and give to drink. A hastener of birth: grind dittany, about two obols' worth, in warm water and let her drink. Or grind a drachma of southernwood, juniper berries, and anise into a kyathos of sweet wine, pour in a kyathos of old water, and give to drink; this is well given if administered before the labor pains begin. Or: one obol of dittany, one obol of myrrh, two obols of anise, one obol of soda; grind these smooth, pour over them a kyathos of sweet wine and two kyathoi of warm water, give to drink, then bathe her in warm water. A hastener of birth: terebinth resin, honey, oil double the quantity of these, fragrant wine as sweet as possible — mix these together, warm them, and give to drink repeatedly; this will also settle the womb if it is inflamed. Another hastener of birth: take the fruit of the wild cucumber, whichever is already white, coat it in wax, then wrap it in crimson wool and tie it around the loins. If a pregnant woman has been held back a long time and cannot give birth, but has been in labor pains for several days, and she is young and in her prime and with much blood, one must cut the veins at the ankles and remove blood, watching with regard to her strength; and after this bathe her in warm water so that she is thoroughly relaxed by the warmth; give her to drink equal parts of chaste-tree fruit and Cretan dittany in white wine or water; and make a pessary and apply it — galbanum, laurel berries, and rose oil, wrapped in wool. A hastener of birth: grind the root of the male fern in wine and give to drink; or grind maidenhair fern in oil, dissolve it, and drink in undiluted wine. For a woman after delivery, this purges the lochia better: grind the fresh liver of a sea turtle while the animal is still living, in women's milk, and blend with iris perfume and wine and apply as a pessary; or grind mercury herb and apply in wool as a pessary; or grind artemisia likewise and apply in wool as a pessary; and also grind a little mercury herb and gourd together, moisten with wine and honey, and apply as a pessary. 78 [60] A purgative of lochia after delivery: break up three-month-old wheat, about half a choinix's worth, and boil in four kotylai of water; when it boils, give to drink as gruel two or three times. Another: boil the leaves of elder in water, strain off and drink; let her also eat boiled cabbage, leeks, fennel, anise, polypuses, and crayfish; or give the leaves of sumac and hedge-mustard in wine, sprinkling barley meal, to drink; or grind misys, about two obols' worth, stir into wine, and apply as a pessary. A purgative of menses and lochia especially, and it also draws off fluid and the rest: pound strouthion root finely, take up as much as three fingers can hold, moisten in honey, and apply as a pessary; it grows like that which grows on the shores of Andros. Another similar purgative: boil hedge-mustard in water, pour oil over it when it bubbles up, cool, and use as a fumigation; the juice is also good; use soft foods. This purges the lochia: grind hedge-mustard gently and try to blow away the husks; when you have made it clean, grind it smooth, drip in water, and mix in salt and oil; when you have sprinkled in flour, boil it and let her drink it as gruel. If the lochial discharge does not come down, take the inner pulp of the gourd, about three obols' worth, and artemisia herb, and frankincense, about one obol's worth; grind them, mix in honey, wrap in wool, and apply to the mouth of the womb, doing this continually night and day for five days. Or grind the green vine-shoot and mixing with honey, wrap in wool, and apply in the same way. Or grind the fruit of cypress and frankincense together, dissolve in rose oil and honey, wrap in wool, and apply as a pessary. Or grind southernwood, about a drachma's worth, and the inner pulp of the gourd, about an obol's worth, in honey, wrap in wool, and apply as a pessary. Or grind elaterion, an obol's worth, and myrrh in honey, wrap in wool, and apply as a pessary. Or mix cypress fruit and the inner pulp of the gourd and frankincense with honey, wrap in wool, and apply as a pessary. A purgative if she has not been purged after delivery: drink clover in white wine; the same pessary also breaks through the monthly discharge and expels the embryo. A purgative of the womb when blood remains after the child has died inside: let her lick wild gourd ground in honey, or apply it as a pessary. For all lochial discharge, if it does not flow well: boil hedge-mustard and barley meal, pour oil over it when it is cooked, and let her drink it as gruel, and use the softest possible foods. Or grind scammony in women's milk, soak it up in wool, and apply; or moisten licorice with honey and rose perfume or Egyptian perfume and apply in wool as a pessary; or apply washed flour in the same way as a pessary; and let her drink the fruit of sea-fennel and seseli, and the fruit of rue, two obols of each, grinding together, and give in undiluted wine if she has no fever. A pessary to expel a retained placenta: the leaf of elder; apply also pre-fumigation along with cantharid and those things that are weakened; but if it scratches and bites, remove it at once, and dip wool in rose oil and apply. A pessary capable of expelling the placenta, drawing down the monthly discharge, and expelling a paralyzed embryo: pluck the wings and legs and head from five cantharides, then pound the coastal water-chestnut with its root and leaves, about a konchê's worth, and grind the fresh boanthemon — its outer part, the hard part — about a konchê's worth, and an equal amount of celery seed, and fifteen cuttlefish eggs in sweet wine mixed with water, and apply; and when pain grips her, let her sit in warm water, and let her drink diluted mead, sweet wine, and let her drink an Aeginetan stater's weight of the ground mixture in sweet wine; and when pain grips her, boil white chickpeas and raisins in water, cool, and give to drink, and whenever strangury grips her, let her sit in lukewarm water. 78 (50) [95] An abortive for the womb: take the juice of the wild cucumber, form it into a small cake-like mass and apply as a pessary, having fasted for two days beforehand — you would not find anything better than this. A test: boil a clove of garlic and apply as a pessary. Another test: wrap a little netopon in wool and apply, and observe whether the smell passes through the mouth. Pessaries: place the bile of a sea-scorpion in wool, dry it in the shade, and apply; or dry pennyroyal, grind it smooth, moisten in honey, and apply in wool as a pessary; or bind flower of copper in honey in a linen cloth and apply; or burn cucumber seed and a shard together, moisten in wine, and apply in hare's fur or wool as a pessary. Another pessary: wrap Egyptian alum in wool and apply. Or grind cantharides, moisten with wine, and apply in wool as a pessary. Or moisten artemisia herb with wine and apply as a pessary. Or grind black cumin in wine and apply in wool as a pessary. Or grind the grain-dung from wheat, moisten with wine, and apply in wool as a pessary. Or burn the lees of old white wine, quench with white wine, grind, and apply in a linen cloth. Or apply galbanum, netopon, and misys in rose perfume in a linen cloth as a pessary. Another pessary: apply two doses of elaterion and honeycomb in wine through a linen cloth. Or moisten butter and alum with honey and apply similarly. Or mix the juice of scammony and fat in barley-cake, moisten with wine, and apply through a linen cloth. Drinks capable of expelling a retained placenta from the womb: grind the inside of the wild gourd-melon smooth in women's milk and apply in a linen cloth as a pessary. For the same purpose: give silphion, about a bean's worth, to drink in wine. Another abortive: take her under the armpits and shake her vigorously. Give drinks of chaste-tree leaves in wine; or grind Cretan dittany, about an obol's worth, in water and give; or take a full hand of the evil-smelling fleabane, dissolve in leek juice, and netopon, about a large konchê's worth; grind these smooth and give to drink in wine. Or boil the most resinous pine-torch with sweet wine, pouring in about three kyathoi, and galbanum, about three obols' worth, and myrrh; when it has become thick, give to drink warm. Or leek juice and myrrh and sweet wine together. Or grind the fruit of purslane and give in old white wine. Or grind nine berries of Cretan black poplar in wine and let her drink. Or drink in sweet wine an Aeginetan drachma's weight of the ground leaf and flower of crowfoot. If the placenta is retained, grind the shed skin of a snake, about an obol's worth, in wine and give to drink. Or let her boil the root of celery and myrtle berries, and drink for four days. Or Ethiopian cumin, and castoreum, about an obol's worth, and a little cantharid; give these to drink in wine. Or boil fennel root in wine and oil and honey and give to drink. 78 (100) [145] If the placenta does not come away, grind fleabane in wool and apply as a pessary; but drinking it is better. Or take a handful of fleabane, mix leek juice and netopon, about a cheramys's worth; let her drink these in wine. This expels the placenta, draws down the monthly discharge, and draws out a half-formed embryo: five cantharides, pluck off the wings and legs and head, then pound the coastal water-chestnut with its root and leaves, about a konchê's worth, and grind the fresh euanthemon in equal quantity, and celery seed, and fifteen cuttlefish eggs in sweet wine mixed with water — all these together, and when pain grips her, let her drink; and let her sit in warm water, and let her drink diluted mead and sweet white wine. The following is capable of expelling the womb's contents: the root of sweet wholekoniton — it resembles a bulb but is as small as an olive — grind this in wine and give to drink; if it is small, two suffice; if larger, one is enough; mix in among the seeds Ethiopian cumin and Massalian seseli, or half a choinix of dry Libyan leaf with three kotylai of wine, boil and reduce by half, and let her drink from this. Another: the fruit of chaste-tree and an equal amount of seseli, and myrrh — grind together and give to drink with water. Abortives: grind fresh white chaste-tree, about an oxybaphon's worth, in fragrant white wine, smooth, and give to drink. Another: one obol of castoreum or sagapene, one drachma of asphalt, two of soda; grind all in sweet wine and oil, about half a kotyle, give to drink to a fasting woman — two obols — and bathe her well in warm water. Another similar: grind three whole sea-urchins smooth in fragrant wine and give to drink. Another: a small bundle of mint and rue and coriander, and shavings of cedar or cypress, give to drink in fragrant wine; and of the sea-urchins, if available, let her drink as much broth as possible in the same way; then bathe her in warm water. Another similar: anise, juniper berries, celery fruit, Ethiopian cumin, seseli — half an oxybaphon of each — grind smooth and give to drink in white wine. Another similar: a bundle of dittany and two drachmas of carrot seed, and an equal amount of black cumin in white wine, grind smooth, give to drink, and bathe her in plenty of warm water; give in proportion to the strength of the illness. Another: grind galbanum about the size of an olive in cedar oil and apply as a pessary; this is capable of destroying and expelling what is sluggish. Another injected abortive for the womb: when the fetus has died and putrefied from cold, when there is a cold wind, grind saffron smooth, about a weight's worth, pour it into goose fat, and leave as long as possible. A drink contributing well to this purpose: grind fragrant fleabane, honey, and resin smooth in fragrant wine or in syrmaia, give to drink, and bathe in warm water. Another drink likewise for the child and the evils within: mix verdigris with honey and syrmaia and give to drink. Another applied abortive if the fetus is dying: put copper filings into soft linen and apply to the mouth of the womb, and you will help. An applied abortive if the fetus has died inside: scrape a fresh shard and goose fat and apply. Another pessary: boil soda with resin and form into a suppository, dip in bird fat, and apply. Another pessary: the one called 'charming' — apply its root against the navel, not for too long a time. Another: grind wild gourd and mouse dung smooth and apply as a pessary. Another, applied as a bandage: grind resin and bird fat together and mix, and apply bound over the navel and belly. Another pessary: grind the fruit of white ivy and cedar shavings, form into suppositories, and apply. 78 (150) [195] Another: grind the brain of a sea turtle, Egyptian saffron, and Egyptian salt together and mix; form into suppositories and apply. An abortive fumigation, also capable of expelling blood from the belly: place willow leaves on fire and fumigate, and seat the woman over it and leave her until the smoke penetrates into the womb. On the treatment of miscarriage: when a woman miscarries and the child does not come out, whether it has putrefied and swollen or suffered some other such thing, squeeze out the juice of leeks and celery through a cloth from both, a kotyle of rose oil, and goose fat, about a quarter portion, three obols of resin dissolved in oil; and having positioned her with feet raised higher, pour into the womb; and let her lie holding it as long as possible; then seat her for four days, and the putrefied child will come out; and if not, take Egyptian salt and fresh green wild gourd, mix with honey, grind, give to eat, and when she has eaten, let her move this way and that. An applied abortive: Egyptian salt, mouse-dung, wild gourd, and pour honey, about a quarter portion, half-boiled over it, and take one drachma of resin and throw it into the honey and the gourd and the mouse-dung; grind all together well and form into suppositories, and apply to the womb until it seems the right time. Another abortive, which expels a fetus that has been struck: grind pellitory in wine and give to drink. Another drink for expulsion, which expels the fetus when livid: grind the roots of the ektomon finely, taking three fingers' worth, and myrrh, about a bean's worth, and give to drink in sweet wine. An abortive: coriander with its root and soda and netopon — let her apply as a pessary and walk about. An injection for the embryo, if it has died inside, to expel it: grind saffron, pour over it goose oil, filter, pour into the womb, and leave as long as possible. To destroy and expel an unmoving embryo: one drachma of split alum, an equal weight of myrrh, three obols of black hellebore — grind smooth in dark wine, form into suppositories, and apply until it is gradually expelled. Purgative douches of the womb if it has been ulcerated or inflamed after delivery: take winter unripe figs, pour water over them and boil, then remove, let settle, then pour in warm oil and mix; douche with two kotylai at most; do not douche with any more for any douches. Also with pomegranate rinds and manna gum, boiled in harsh dark wine, then strain off the wine, and douche with this. Another douche: burn wine lees, melt, and douche in water; then pomegranate rinds, myrtle berries, fragrant rush, lentils boiled in wine — strain off the wine, and douche. Another douche: melt butter, frankincense, resin with honey in the same vessel, pour in wine, and douche warm. Or boil elder fruit in water, strain off the water, grind celery, myrrh, anise, frankincense in the same, pour in the most fragrant wine possible in equal quantity to the water, filter through a linen cloth, warm, and douche. Another: boil cabbage, mercury herb, linseed, and green flax in water, filter off, and douche with the water. Or take a half-oxybaphon of myrtle leaves, myrrh, anise, honey, resin, Egyptian perfume; grind all together, pour over them two kotylai of the most fragrant white wine, filter, warm, and douche with this. Or boil laurel berries and pennyroyal in water, pour over them rose perfume, and douche with this, warmed. Or mix goose fat with resin, pour wine over it, warm it, and douche. 78 (200) [245] Another: warm butter and cedar oil in a little honey, mix, and douche. Or boil honey, butter, fragrant rush, fragrant reed, sea-moss in wine, then filter, and douche in this way. Or boil celery fruit, seseli, myrrh, anise, black cumin in wine, filter off the wine, and douche. Or boil cedar in wine and douche with the wine. Or boil ivy in water and douche with the water. Or boil elaterion, or two doses of cestron, in water, about two kotylai, and douche warm. Or boil the inner pulp of the gourd, about two fingers' length, in two kotylai of water, pour honey and oil over the water, and douche with this. Or grind the root of thapsia smooth, about two doses' worth, pour over it honey and oil, dissolve in warm water, about two kotylai, and douche. Or dissolve black hellebore, about two doses' worth, in sweet wine and water, and douche. Or grind sixty Cnidian berries smooth, pour over them honey and oil and water, and douche. A consolidating douche, if the ulcers are clean: grind winter unripe figs, pour water over them, soak the whole day, pour in oil, and douche. Or use pomegranate rinds and shavings of lotus-wood, boiled in dark wine. When unclean matter is being discharged, burn wine lees and douche with wine and water. Or use pomegranate rind, tanning sumac, myrtle leaves and bramble leaves, boiled in dark wine, and douche. Douches for old ulcers: douche with the juice of boiled cabbage; and mercury herb likewise; and mix in a little red soda. A half-oxybaphon of myrrh, frankincense, seseli, anise, celery seed, netopon, resin, honey, goose fat, white vinegar, white Egyptian perfume — grind equal parts of each smooth in the same vessel, then dissolve in two kotylai of white wine, and douche warm. Or boil mercury herb in water and filter off. Or a half-oxybaphon of myrrh, frankincense, seseli, netopon, equal parts of each, and douche warm. Or boil sage and hypericum in water and douche with the water. Or boil equal parts of elder fruit and laurel berries in wine, then douche with the wine. Or douche with the water from pennyroyal. Or melt goose oil in resin, similarly add a little cedar oil, melt in honey, and douche warm. Or melt flower of silver in wine and honey and melted wax, and add cyperus and fragrant rush and reed — those things in fact mixed into perfume — and iris, sea-moss, boil in wine, and douche. Or boil celery fruit, anise, seseli, myrrh, black cumin in wine, or boil Cretan cedar in wine and douche; or Cretan ivy in water does the same thing. Or dissolve echtrosin and myrrh in water and douche. Or douche with elaterion, about two doses, in water. Or soak two wild gourd-melons in boiled wine or milk, approximately four kotylai, filter, and douche. Or boil the inner pulp of the gourd, about a palm's length, in four kotylai of water, pour honey and oil over it, and apply actively. Or dissolve two doses of thapsia root in sweet wine with two kotylai of water, and douche warm. Or dissolve hellebore, about two doses, in sweet wine, approximately two kotylai, or a half-oxybaphon of thlaspi mixed with honey, dissolved in approximately two kotylai of water, use warm. Or boil a palm's length of gourd and one dose of spurge-flax in five kotylai of water, pour honey and oil over it, and douche. Or grind sixty Cnidian berries smooth, mix honey, oil in water, and douche. If she has been seized with diarrhea after delivery, let her drink dark raisins, the inner part of sweet pomegranate rind, and a kid's rennet — these dissolved in dark wine — and sprinkle in goat's cheese and wheat barley-meal, and give to drink; roast the wheat a little. 78 (250) [270] If after delivery she vomits blood, the pipe of the liver has been ruptured; let her drink donkey's milk, then cow's milk if convenient, for forty days, and ground sesame, until she is well; let her drink the milk fasting. If she has pain in the anus after delivery, boil juniper berry and flax root and drink for four days; and grind lettuce seed with goose fat and eat. If the womb becomes inflamed after delivery, pour in the juice of strychnus or of beet or of buckthorn. If the leg is lamed by the womb after delivery and she cannot stand up: let her drink the fruit of henbane, about a cheramys's worth, in dark wine for three days; the drinker becomes delirious; the remedy is to give her to drink as much as a cup of donkey's milk, then the medicine by which phlegm is purged; let her be fumigated with realgar, wax ointment, and hare's fur for three days. On inflammation after delivery: if the womb becomes inflamed after delivery, pour the juice of strychnus into the genitalia, or of celery, or of buckthorn, or of beet, or squeeze out the juice of gourd and pour in; or scrape the middle and softest part of the gourd itself into a long piece and insert it. Or grind wormwood in water, sponge it up in wool, and if she shivers, remove it. Or boil cotyledon leaves and leeks in wheat bran, pour oil over it, and give. Purgatives of bile from the womb: grind the inner pulp of the gourd smooth, knead with honey, form into a suppository, and apply; one must also give a medicine and purge both upward and downward, and bathe in warm water, and apply anise or black cumin as a pessary. 79 [15] Or make the inside of the wild gourd smooth, knead with honey, and apply as a pessary. Or apply elaterion in the amount of four portions, having mixed in goose or goat fat, making the pessary rather long-shaped, and apply. Or take natron, cumin, garlic, and fig, make all smooth and moisten with honey, and apply as a pessary; let her bathe in warm water and drink after the bath. Or make thlaspi smooth and knead with honey, and apply as a pessary. Or scraping the rich part of an old fig, mix in two portions of elaterion, and natron in the same amount as the elaterion, moisten with honey, and apply. Or give as much as three kyathoi of peucedanum to drink. Or dissolve anise and black cumin in wine and give to drink. Mix four portions of elaterion with apple fat; let her remove it and rinse herself with fragrant water that is mildly astringent. Or three portions of elaterion with apple fat, make a winged pessary; when she removes it, let her rinse herself with a good, sufficient amount of water. Or give a portion of thlaspi with honey. An enema if she is bilious: dissolve elaterion in the amount of two portions in water, pour over narcissus oil, and inject warm. 80 [25] Or soak two wild gourds in boiled wine-and-milk in the amount of four kotylai, strain one, mix in narcissus oil, and inject as enema. Another enema, both bilious and phlegmatic: cook the pith of cucumber in the amount of a hand-span in four kotylai of drinking water, mix in honey and flower oil, and inject as enema. Purging phlegm and bile: sixty berries of Knidian daphne, mixed with honey and flower oil, inject as enema in water. Or cook knestrion in five kotylai of drinking water, pour off two kotylai, mix in honey and flower oil together with narcissus oil, and inject as enema. Purgative enemas: winter unripe figs burned and soaked in water; pour off the water, mix in oil, inject as enema, and follow with an after-enema of pomegranate rinds, oak-gall, and lotus-wood sawdust, boiling these in dark wine. Or burn wine-lees and use with water; follow with an after-enema of myrtle leaves and the bark-tanner's sumac, boiling in fragrant dark wine; also follow with an after-enema of rush leaves, hyperikon, and sage boiled in fragrant dark wine, or in cabbage water, boiling in this also mercury-plant, a little red natron, and inject. A portion of elaterion with narcissus oil or flower oil, inject warm. If she is bilious, soak two gourds in boiled ass's milk in the amount of four kotylai, strain and inject, mixing in narcissus or flower oil. Or the preparation using cucumber: cook the pith in the amount of a hand-span in four kotylai of drinking water, pour in honey and flower oil; this enema is beneficial to those who are both phlegmatic and bilious. An enema drawing phlegm: grind the berry together with mandrake root in water. By this a very great and varied purging takes place: take garlic bulb, natron, the rich inside of a fig, grind equal parts smooth, make a suppository the size of an oak-gall, and apply as pessary. 81 [15] Or grind cumin leaves in wine, apply wrapped in wool. Or give a portion of white earth. Or grind white root smooth, pour on honey and bring to a boil, make into a pessary, and apply. Or soften silphium resin with figs and make into a pessary; cucumber seed ground in the same manner is also good. Or take bull's bile, red natron, neetōpon, and cyclamen—of these the amount of an oak-gall, with a larger portion of cyclamen—let the woman being treated mix with honey and apply as pessary. A pessary: wash the head of cyclamen in water, grind, mix to a foam, and apply. Or myrrh, salt, cumin, bull's bile with honey, likewise. Or shell berries in the amount of three of the Indian drug used for the eyes, which is called pepper—both the round kind—grind all three smooth, dissolve in warm aged wine, place on a bird's feather wrapped in a thin cloth, and in this manner apply. Or moisten tithymallos juice with honey, or take a six-finger-length of squill root, wrap two fingers of it in wool, and apply. Or grind the squill itself without the root and similarly wind in wool, then apply. An enema if the woman is phlegmatic: dissolve two portions of hellebore in sweet wine in the amount of two kotylai, mix together and inject. 82 [5] If she needs purging, one must boil leeks, or elderberry, or anise, frankincense, myrrh, wine—grind all these and inject the juice of these. Or having boiled cabbage in water, cook mercury-plant in the juice of this, pour off a little, and use as an after-enema. Or dissolve a portion of knestrion in honey and inject. One must observe the monthly discharges to determine whether they are bilious or phlegmatic: spread fine, dry sand in the sun, and when the monthly discharge comes, pour some of the blood on it and let it dry; if they are bilious, the blood drying on the sand becomes greenish; if phlegmatic, they appear like mucus. If they are phlegmatic, dissolve a portion of knestrion with a kotylē of mead, and inject. 84 [55] A mild purgative that brings away water and sloughed tissues and bloodstained ichor, draws down the monthly periods if they have not been long suppressed, and softens the mouth of the womb: narcissus perfume, edible cumin, myrrh, frankincense, wormwood, Cyprian salt, rose ointment—of these others each an equal part, of the narcissus four parts—mixed together with raw flax combings; grind all, make into a pessary, wrap a thin cloth around a feather, bind it, dip into white Egyptian oil, and apply, leaving in the whole day; after bathing and removing it let her rinse with the fragrant water. Another purgative, which brings away water and sloughed tissues and mucus and bloodstained ichor: myrrh, salt, cumin, bull's bile—mix these together, knead with honey, put into a cloth, apply, and leave inside the whole day; then after bathing and removing it let her rinse with fragrant water. Another: salt, cumin, bull's bile—knead with honey, apply; after bathing, removing it, rinse with the fragrant water. Or mix silphium resin with fig and apply as a pessary, then rinse with rose perfume. Or shell berries and boil, make into a pessary; when she removes it, let her apply rose ointment. Or mix garlic, red natron, and fig in equal amounts with honey, give to apply as pessary; and when she removes it, apply deer fat melted in wine. Or mix five pepper berries with a little elaterion, drip a woman's milk into wool, dip into perfume, and likewise apply and remove. Or the richest part of a fig with a portion of elaterion and an equal amount of red natron and an equal amount of honey, likewise. Or bull's bile and red natron, neetōpon, a cyclamen-sized oak-gall amount in honey. Or let her dip bull's bile into Egyptian oil and apply, and on removing it, into rose ointment. Or take the pith of the long cucumber, removing the seeds, together with a nursing woman's milk, and undiluted myrrh and a little honey and Egyptian perfume, grind, and apply. Or dry the pith of the cucumber, pound it without the seeds and put in honey, bring to a boil, make a long pessary, and dip into white oil. Or the wild gourd in the same manner; and grind three portions of elaterion in fat, and make into a pessary. Another, likewise: shell berries, grind a portion, boil, pour on honey, and apply, or rose ointment and let her apply; all who apply a pessary must fix the feather in the pessary, then wrap in a thin cloth with wool, dip into Egyptian oil, and apply; this draws most powerfully and the sloughed tissues are removed. Strong purgative pessaries, capable of drawing water and mucus and sloughed tissues more than the former: four of the largest pepper berries, or ten of the small ones, mixed with a portion of elaterion, grind smooth, dripping in a woman's milk and a little honey, knead this, wrap in soft clean wool around a feather with cloths, and bind and apply, dipping into white Egyptian oil; let it be in place a whole day, and when she removes it, let deer fat be applied. Purgative pessaries, if drinkable purgatives do not purge: grind mercury-plant and myrrh, and apply. Purgative pessaries likewise, capable of expelling the afterbirth, drawing down the monthly periods, and bringing out a dead fetus: pluck five blister-beetles, removing the wings and legs and the head; then pound a seaside tribulus with its roots and leaves and the green outer part, grind an equal bulk, and fifteen cuttlefish eggs, in mixed sweet wine, and let her sit in warm water; let her drink diluted mead and sweet wine, and drink a stater-weight of the ground preparation in sweet wine; when pain comes, boil white chickpeas and raisins in water, cool, and give to drink; whenever strangury occurs, let her sit in lukewarm water and drink sweet wine. 84 (50) [10] For every sickness, capable of both opening and purging: grind a little myrrh, sage, and anise—use this. A purgative capable of purging the childless woman, if the mouth of the womb is in the right condition: apply heat by sitz-steam using dried cow-dung pounded and sifted, four choinikes, ten kotylai of vinegar, an equal amount of ox urine, and twenty kotylai of seawater; apply the steam-heat gently for a long time; then having bathed, let her drink lentil soup mixed with honey and vinegar and vomit; give flour gruel to drink, and afterward drink aged fragrant wine that has been exposed to the night air; she should not taste grain on that day; on the second day give a berry as a pill to swallow; on the third day give a diuretic—raisins and white chickpeas: two choinikes of chickpeas, one choinix of raisins—pour over three hemichoa of water, then pour off, set out in the night air, and on the following day drink this, and use pessaries. 86 A purgative for the monthly periods: mold the cow-dung like a small trough, knead mixing in cypress sawdust, dry in the sun, and cast the fumigating substances into it. A poured-in purgative if the monthly periods do not come: grind the leaves of white thorn, strain, warm, and pour in. 88 [10] A rubbed-on purgative so as to cleanse the womb: grind leek seed and cress, dissolve in wine and boiled milk, and rub on the lower belly. A softening rubbed-on application that brings away water and mucus and sloughed tissues and brings on lochia, and does not ulcerate: half a portion of the best myrrh, and a grain of salt likewise, crush sweetened pitch, mix smooth—the myrrh is to be half of the salt and pitch combined; put into a cloth of crushed material, of the size of a large oak-gall; let there be two, so that one may be in place during the day and one at night, until it melts down; let her bathe in warm water, then removing it let her rinse with fragrant water. A purgative to purge the childless woman if the mouth is in the right condition: if you are treating a childless woman, sift sun-dried cow-dung in the amount of four Attic choinikes, ten kotylai of vinegar, a choinix of vetch-meal, and twenty kotylai of seawater; apply heat by sitz-steam for a long time; then make lentil soup, mix in honey and vinegar, and let her vomit; let her drink groat-gruel and drink fragrant wine afterward; let her not touch grain that day; on the following day give a berry as a pill to swallow; on the third day a diuretic—if you wish, white raisins and white chickpeas, two choinikes of chickpeas, one choinix of raisins—pour on three hemichoa of water, remove half, then set out in the night air, and on the following day let her drink from this little by little, and use pessaries. 89 [20] If you wish a woman to conceive, you should purge her and the womb, then give her dill to eat fasting, and let her drink unmixed wine on top of it, and apply as pessary red natron and cumin and resin moistened with honey, placed in a linen cloth; and when the fluid flows off, let her apply the black pessaries as a softening agent, and let her come together with her husband. If the mouth is closed, let her also apply fig-tree juice, until it is opened up; then wash it off immediately with water; grind hawk's dung in sweet wine and let her drink it fasting, and then let her share a bed with her husband. Or when the monthly periods cease, grind goose-fox dung in rose perfume, anoint the genitals, and share a bed. If there are sharp ulcers and inflammation, use this enema: mix goose oil and resin, dissolve in lukewarm water, and inject. 90 [40] Or melt honey and butter, and inject. Or scrape echetrōsis in the amount of a small trough, and myrrh and honey likewise, dissolve these in fragrant dark wine, and inject warm. If during the cleansing the extreme lips become ulcerated or full of blisters: ox flesh, or pikērion, or goose fat, and anise, or saffron, or Cyprian ash—grind all these, smear around the flesh, and apply. If ulcers form and cause itching: ox flesh, smear with fat, apply the flesh, and also inject. If she is foul, also fumigate from fig root, and afterward let her drink a pear in sweet wine. If ulcers form in the genitals, smear with ox fat, and having boiled myrtle in wine let her rinse with the wine, or leaves of olive and bramble and pomegranate; leaves of persea and Pramnian wine do the same—grind the leaves smooth, and apply to the genitals. Or grind the fruit of anise and celery and anoint. If the genitals develop aphthous sores, treat in this manner: ox flesh about two hand-spans in length, as thick as a tool-handle; apply until evening, remove at night; the next day apply again until midday, and let her drink sweet wine mixed with honey. An enema if the womb is ulcerated and strangury comes on: leeks, elderberry, seseli, anise, frankincense, myrrh, and wine equal to the juice of these—mix these and bring to a boil, cool, and inject moderately. Or inject honey, butter, marrow, and wax. All ulcers that exist and grow in the genitals: grind leaves of olive, bramble, ivy, and sweet pomegranate smooth, dissolve in aged wine, apply on wool to the genitals at night, and poultice with these; when day comes, pull out; boil myrtle in wine and rinse. Or melt goose oil and resin, and inject. Or butter and cedar oil, mix in a little honey, and inject. To dry up ulcers in the mouth: grind silver flower in wine and inject. Or inject butter with honey. Or dissolve echetrōsis and myrrh and honey in dark wine mixed with wine, warm, and inject the following day; then having boiled lentisk leaves in water, use this as an after-enema. Another, if the mouth of the womb is ulcerated: butter, frankincense, myrrh, resin, deer marrow—inject with these. Or boil lentils in water, pour off, and inject with this. When water flows from the womb and there are ulcers and burning, anoint with goose fat and egg. Or sheep fat, or pig fat, and boil lentil in wine mixed equally with water, inject with this; irrigate the ulcers in the genitals with wine; sprinkle on manna, bramble, pine bark, and rinse with water of these. A means of expulsion if the fetus has died: wrap a quantity of galbanum the size of an olive in cloth, dip into cedar resin, and apply to the mouth of the womb. 91 [25] Another: grind fragrant reed and the pith of cucumber in goose fat; bind the navel and lower belly; and having dripped a little of this into wool, apply to the mouth of the womb; from this the expulsion comes little by little. Another: pound madder and cedar sawdust, pour water over, set out in the night air, then give in the morning for the pains. Another: silphium resin in the amount of one drachma, and juice of leek in the amount of an oxybaphon, mixed with half a small kyathos of cedar oil—give to drink. Another: bull's bile in the amount of one obol, or half an obol, ground in wine—give; or coating with fat, give again to swallow. Another: five river crabs and root of sorrel and rue, and soot from the oven—grind all together and combine in mead, set out under the open sky, and let her drink it three times fasting. Another: grind the pith of cucumber smooth in cedar pitch, wrap in wool, bind to a feather with linen, and let her insert it inside; the hard end of the feather should project a little beyond the wool outside; when blood appears, let her remove it. Another: take a rod of black hellebore six fingers long, wind it in wool, letting the tip be bare, then let her insert it inside as deeply as possible; when the tip becomes bloody, let her remove it. Another: grind black hellebore, blister-beetles, and fleabane in water, make a soft pessary about six fingers long, dry it, and when it has become hard, wrap in wool and let her apply, anointing the tip with cedar resin, and keep the tip bare; when blood appears, let her remove it. A means of expulsion: if a fetus is dead within or incapacitated, mix crowfoot and a little elaterion in well-mixed vinegar and give to drink. Or let an oiled tender cabbage stem be inserted at its tip smeared with neetōpon. Spurious additions placed at the end of the first book On Women. [Note: The Greek text itself labels the following recipes (chapters 92–103) as νόθα, meaning spurious or secondary, indicating they are later additions not attributed to the original author.] 92 [10] For a child's cough: feed thapsia on barley groats. Another: roast an egg, take out the yolk, grind; and white roasted sesame and salt, lick up in honey. To loosen a child's belly: dip unwashed wool in honey and insert; if the child is older, grind the inner part of onions and insert; if not, inject with goat's milk, having mixed in honey; if there is no milk, wash out wheat flour, mix honey and oil, inject warm. For a child's asthma: frankincense in sweet wine, without bathing, as purgative; make small pessaries—a kotylē of honey, an oxybaphon of anise, two drachmas of asphalt, bull's bile, three drachmas of myrrh, a portion of elaterion; boil in a bronze vessel, mix in goose oil, and when about to use, anoint the small pessaries with the soft goose oil; use sheep's wool and lentisk oil—mix cinnabar with this. For resolving vomiting: juice of basil in white wine. 93 Another: water of strained fine-wheat flour, or juice squeezed from sweet and sour pomegranate, then mixing in honey. The rotting preparation is made thus: black hellebore, realgar, copper scale—grind each separately in equal amounts; when smooth, mix in double the amount of a single portion of lime, dissolve in cedar resin, and let her anoint. 95 [5] The roasted preparation is made thus: roast copper flower cleanly until it becomes crimson, grind smooth, and use this. The black preparation: copper scale, copper flower—grind each separately; when you have ground smooth in this way, mix; make two or three varieties of the preparation—the strongest is copper flower at one third of the scale, the second at one quarter, the third at one fifth; this preparation is broadly well-suited. 97 [5] An intermittent preparation for quinsie: parched barley, stavesacre, wormwood, elaterion, honey. For the pains in gouty conditions, the swellings that stand apart: plaster with salt kneaded smooth with water, and do not undo for three days; when you undo it, again use raw natron, the red kind, ground, and a little honey—use this as you used the salt for the same period of time; put smooth salt into an earthenware pot, then sprinkle on a little alum, then place the copper vessels, and again sprinkle on the salt and alum, then cover and set under fire for a night and a day. 99 For reducing the anus: anoint the anus with raisins ground, rubbed, dry. For dispersing indurated parts: realgar in fat. 101 The juice of red lettuce dissolves all pain in water; the weight is an Attic half-obol. For the eyes: burned copper, rust, myrrh—dissolved in goat's bile; grind all these together smooth, dissolve in white wine; then dry in the sun in a bronze vessel; then put into a reed and use dry. 103 [5] A plaster: burn missy, grind in a mortar; mix with it washed gold-ash (residue from gold-working); let the ash be three parts, the missy one; burn the missy in a cake, taking care that it does not run out—for it becomes liquid as it roasts; when it is well roasted, it becomes crimson. A plaster: white lead mixed in the same manner with roasted missy, just as the missy occurs with gold-ash. Another plaster stronger than this: Cyprian ash from soot (residue from copper smelting), washed, and white lead, and roasted missy; let there be two parts of ash and white lead, one of missy. Fluid of anemone: pound the leaves and squeeze out, and set in the sun in a red bronze vessel covered, so that nothing falls in; when thick, shape into small lozenges, then dry; when dry, burn as thoroughly as possible; then when cooled, grind smooth, and mix washed soot-ash (from burning) in equal amount, then dripping in a little neetōpon grind, then dissolve in honey; then having dried this, put into a bronze box and use. 104 [25] Soft dry preparation: Cyprian ash, unwashed chalcitis ground fine, and flower of copper — mix these in equal parts and grind smooth. Another dry preparation: Cyprian ash, chalcitis ground fine, and unwashed gold ash in which gold has been boiled — grind these in equal parts smooth. Another dry preparation: washed ash, gold-ash, and foam of copper, equal parts, ground smooth. Another: juice of unripe grape and Cyprian ash — one must press the juice from the unripe grape at its peak through linen cloth into red copper, and mix in a third part of the sharpest available white vinegar, and so boil it down in the sun, stirring it five times a day; when the juice has thickened, put in smooth ash of the Cyprian chalcitis and mix it in — add the ash when the juice has been sitting in the sun for six or seven days: for one Attic cotyle of juice, eight drachmas of ash; if you wish it sharper, use less ash; if softer, more; after this, dry it until it can be shaped into lozenges; then continue drying, hanging it up over smoke, and so dry it until it becomes ceramic-like, so that when rubbed it does not roll together — then use it thus; and let it be stored where it will not pick up moisture. Another dry preparation: ash and chalcitis kneaded with white vinegar, then shaped into lozenges to dry; when dried, grind smooth. For anointing the eye: boil together the finest honey and sweet old wine. 105 [10] For a white opacity of the eye: mix black poplar tears with woman's milk and apply. If the eye weeps and there is pain: press out the juice of sweet pomegranate, boil it in a bronze vessel over gentle fire until it becomes thick and black like pitch; if it is summer, set it in the sun; then anoint with the liquid preparation. If the eye weeps and is rheumy: when the white grape is very ripe and shriveled on the vine, pick it and strain it, then dry it in the sun; when dry, scrape it off, mix in a half-obol by Attic weight of rust; then anoint with this. A sprinkling preparation: burnt lead and ash in equal parts, a tenth part of myrrh, a small amount of poppy juice, old wine — grind the dry ingredients and use. Squill, and a third part of ash, and a third part of white lead, a third part of burnt papyrus, a tenth part of myrrh. If you wish to drive hair from the body: anoint with vine-tears mixed with oil; if you wish also for the eye, pick and anoint. 106 [5] Burn alcyonion, then grind it smooth, dissolve in wine, and anoint; it will come away with a thin layer of skin, and the surface will be red and of good color. For leienterion: soak lentils and soft-wheat grain, about two choinikes' worth, until they are soft when bitten through, then pound them very thoroughly in a mortar or pestle-bowl; then pour six cotyles of water over them and stir vigorously; whatever liquid results, pour it into a pot and boil, adding a little honey; when it has boiled thoroughly, roast it and give it to eat; if thirsty, let the patient drink wine as old as possible; continue this until the patient is well. 108 [5] If there is nasal discharge: grind myrrh fine, mix with honey, make a compress of linen and rub the nostrils. An enema for drawing phlegm: a drink of thapsia, or about forty berries of dried grape, or a drink of knidion, or of shavings — mix in half a cotyle of honey, an equal amount of oil, strain through seawater in which bran or peeled barley has been boiled until it is fatty; or with fat, or with beet juice alone, or with boiled milk, or with elderberry juice, or with mercury-herb juice; also mix in about ten drachmas of nitre, or a bowl of salt — except when using seawater. 109 [t2] If you wish to draw bile: a drink of juice, a weight and a half of elaterion, grind one drachma by weight of colocynth; strain through the same vehicles as before. If you wish to draw more forcefully: soak the pith of a gourd, four drachmas, in half a cotyle of water, give this as an enema; and if upon evacuation it causes biting sensation, follow up with an enema of peeled-barley juice. Another: soak the pith in three cotyles of boiled ass's milk or beet juice, adding salt, honey, and oil; follow up with peeled-barley juice. Another: grind one drachma of colocynth, soak it in ass's milk beforehand, and mix in the same ingredients. Another: one drachma of pith, a drink of elaterion, as much solome as three fingers can hold, honey, oil — strain through seawater. If you wish to move formed stool, give no medicinal drink; use the other means. Enema for dysentery: boil as many rind-portions of sweet pomegranate as possible in wine, boil until half remains, mix in honey and oil, a quarter-cotyle of each. For tenesmos: four drachmas of frankincense, half a cotyle of rose perfume, peeled-barley juice, boiled seawater. Grind two doses of hellebore, dissolve in half a cotyle of water, with an equal amount of oil — give as enema. Pour juice into a basin, cut up quince apples and let them steep; when the water has taken on their scent, give it to drink. Put the inner part of peeled barley into a chous of water and boil until it becomes fatty; cool, then cut up the apples, steep a honeycomb in water and rub together at the same time until it is slightly sweet, and after straining, put in leaves of celery. Another: put white dried grapes into water, rub calamint or coriander into the water until slightly sweet. END OF BOOK TWO OF ON WOMEN. 110 (t1) [45] White flux occurs more in older women than in younger ones; red flux in younger women; tawny flux in both. Red flux comes from fever, more often from miscarriage; it also comes from suppression of the monthly flow, when, having been shut off, it suddenly bursts forth; it also comes from childbirth. Blood flows in great quantity, clots fall out, there is pain in the collar-bones and sinews, and numbness of the body and chilling of the legs; sometimes the teeth are clenched, if the blood flowing out is excessive, and the women become speechless, and much sweat pours out; in addition to these things there are heartburn, chills, fevers that are purely bilious and marked by restlessness, and they shiver many times on the same day, and again sweat, and at some times spasms come upon them from the upper regions, at other times from the lower, and sharp, strong pains fall into the groins, coming on like labor pains; sometimes also strangury; and the mouth is dry, and thirst presses hard, and the tongue is rough, and the great toes of the feet are drawn together, and the calves are always tensed tight against the thigh, and there is great pain around the loins, and loss of control of the hands. Whenever such things occur, tetanic spasms also tend to arise from the collar-bones down through the throat-vessels toward the jaws and tongue; and from such conditions shortly thereafter from behind, from the sinews down along the spine — and in this way they are destroyed by violence. One must therefore make prognosis at the onset of the fluxes, and manage the regimen — the diaita — in the following way: in the morning, give a medicinal drink against the fluxes from those that I shall write out, whichever seems most needed, and give it three and even four times; and if much blood is flowing out, then order the diaita: if they are without fever, order solid foods; if they are feverish, order gruels. The most suitable of the gruels are these: millet, lentils, boiled emmer-wheat meal, thoroughly boiled spelt-groats for drinking, thoroughly boiled zeia-grain; of the drinks: barley-flour in water, the scrapings from broken breads, and fine coarse-bran flour soaked in water, to lick up unsalted; of the solid foods: bread baked through in ashes; as relish, hare's flesh, ring-dove, wood-pigeon, both boiled and roasted, roasted kid-flesh dressed with nothing, dipped in vinegar, liver of goat or ox roasted in ashes, yolks of roasted eggs, unsalted cheese; of vegetables, taste none at all, neither boiled nor raw; abstain from baths; bind both arms with greasy fleece twisted and made thick above the elbows and above the hollows of the knees above the knee-joints; and apply cupping-vessels, lifting the breasts and placing them beneath, sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left; if difficulty of breathing arises upon the application of the cupping-vessel, remove the cupping-vessel; do not draw off blood; use suppositories of the kind I shall write out, those that arrest the blood — suppositories suited for cases of this sort. If the woman survives the fluxes with much blood flowing out, the complexion is pallid, the face puffy, there is swelling beneath the eyes, the legs are swollen, the womb is moist and constantly opens abnormally, and the discharges are watery like the chymos from raw flesh. In such cases one must, when the patient has strength, also induce vomiting when fasting, and after the vomiting give a midday meal. For such women, restriction of drinking is beneficial, dark wine less diluted, abstinence from bathing, cold-bathing, walks, one meal a day, every form of dryness in the regimen. 110 (50) [55] If in response to these measures the wombs do not settle down or contract, and they do not cease from the rheumata, one must examine the body's strength, and if it is capable, give hellebore treatment; if the treatment does not respond, purge the head; and after purging, treat the rest through the diaita in the same way as in the case of childless women. One must also take into account the natures of the women and their complexions and ages and seasons and regions and the pneumata. 111 [5] For those who are cold are moist and prone to flux, while those who are warm are drier and resistant to flux; those who are excessively pale are more moist and more prone to flux, while dark women are drier and more astringent; wine-complexioned women have something of both in between. And similarly with regard to ages: young women are for the most part moister and full of blood; older women are drier and have little blood; those in between hold a middle state between both, poised between the two. One who is to manage these things correctly must discern at each occasion the natures of the women and the right moments and the ages and the seasons and the regions and the pneumata. If a flux arises in the womb, much blood flows, coagulated clots fall out, and pain grips the haunches and flanks and lower belly, and it is hard and pains on being touched, and shivering and sharp fever take hold, and weakness supervenes, and everything except the shoulders and shoulder-blades is painful, and heat grips, and the skin reddens, and the small veins are hard when pressed against. 112 [5] This disease arises most often from miscarriages; it also arises whenever the monthly flow, having been absent for a long time, suddenly bursts forth. For this patient, when she is in this condition, pound dried wild fig, sift it into a linen cloth, bind it up, and insert it; and apply cold compresses to the lower belly, taking care that she does not shiver. When the flux has stopped, let her wash the genitals with leaves of wild olive boiled in the sharpest vinegar available; and let her drink grape-seeds and red sumac boiled in about half a cotyle of water; or dry red mulberries from the bramble, grind them smooth, mix with equal parts of soft-wheat flour and give to drink fasting; or if you wish it stronger, mix in two parts of lime, add the flour, and give to drink; and let her not bathe; let her use dry foods and dark, vinous wine. If there is swelling when the flux has already ceased, give a purging medicinal drink downward; after the purge, flush the womb with the liquid from wild figs, and follow up with astringent flushes; if after this treatment she becomes moist, let her use fumigation until she dries out. Red flux: there flows something like the blood of a freshly slaughtered animal, and glistening clots, and at other times it bursts forth as a red flux, and the lower belly rises up and grows thin and is weakened and hardens and is painful when touched as though it were an ulcer, and there is fever and gnashing; pain goes to the genitals themselves and the pubic region and to the flank and the haunches and the sinew and the abdomen and the chest, and the shoulder-blades and all the rest ache, and weakness and faintness of the psyche grip her, and the complexion changes. 113 [5] These are the things that seize hold at the onset of the disease; but if it drags on, all these things flourish further, the disease becomes evident, the hollows swell up, and the feet become edematous. The disease is contracted most often from childbirth, when something that has been worn through within her does not pass out but is rotted and the embryo is worn away within. For this patient, if you encounter her in the early stage, apply a sponge dipped in moisture when there is pain, and throw a smooth, soft, scraped cloth soaked in cold water upon the belly, and pour cold water over her, and let the bed be higher from the feet end, and strew it thus; and trying the women's remedies, give her to drink whichever she most accepts: pound the fruit of celery and roast it after sifting; likewise hedge-mustard and poppy-fruit sifted with barley-meal, and stinging-nettle fruit likewise; and the itch-weed from the olive, and gall-nut, and rue, and oregano, and pennyroyal — sift in barley-meal and knead together; and roast the coarse meal sifted from barley-groats, and grind up kidney-beans, and goat's cheese with the rind scraped off; of the remaining ingredients mix equal parts, but half as much oregano, rue, itch-weed, and gall-nut; let her drink these fasting in the morning before movement; one must also mix them for use; if sharp things pass through, also give a kykeon — let one part be the remedy, one part the cheese, one part the barley-meal; in the evening give it mixed with honey to drink. And as long as she remains in the early grip of the disease, and much blood flows, and there is only a short intermission, and sharp pains grip, these are the things to do. If the blood flows less and at shorter intervals, give her to drink medicines that move things downward or upward, and foment the genitals with gentle fomentations, as opportunity seems to present itself each time, and rub in roasted emmer with its husks, and pound and sift dried winter wild figs and olive leaves likewise, equal parts each, and apply as a poultice, and give cow's milk to drink, either boiled or raw, looking to what is correct and as the moment seems to call for. The disease seems to be slow and deadly; few escape. When blood flows from a woman's joints after she has been ruined by childbirth or by disease — and some physicians think this is a flux, but it is of a different kind — this one flows from the joints and from the loins and hip, glutinous along with the blood; that other one flows from the womb and hollow veins, pure blood. 114 [5] This patient must be fumigated below: roast roughly half an hekteus of emmer, knead it with a little vinegar so as not to moisten the womb throughout, and mixing in about half an obol of sulfur with the ground emmer kneaded with vinegar, set it in place through the night; in the morning, having kindled a good fire, apply it; and mix in stoppers of mullein from oil-jars and purging material from the cloth-worker's comb, and the fruit of the serpent-plant; reduce most of the fire, and burn it — for it will fumigate most effectively that way. The seat must have holes in it and the woman must sit astride it wrapped up in garments so that no air escapes past her; and onto the fire sprinkle the material mixed with vinegar, and the fruit of the serpent-plant. Myrrh mixed in is also effective, and the fumigation makes the genitals cease to bleed. If she has had enough of this, pound roasted hedge-mustard seed and give in wine. Tawny flux: it flows in great quantity, like something from a putrid egg, and foul-smelling, and the womb becomes inflamed, and pain comes from the loins and groins, and the discharges are copious; and if it does not cease, it flows quickly; but even if some time passes, it rots the discharges as thoroughly as possible — for it flows like the chymos from roasted flesh; along with these things, strong fevers and chills; and from fluxes of this sort most women perish, few escape. 115 [15] If you take the case in hand at the beginning, one must treat as follows: if they are without fever and have strength, give hellebore treatment; when this has been done, waiting three or four days, give a purging medicinal drink downward. After the purging, manage the diaita in this way, so that the fluxes will be watery and fatty: in the morning, while fasting, give one of the medicinal drinks to drink, sprinkling it onto wine, from those that I shall write out for flux; after the medicinal drink, treat in the remaining diaita as follows — treat the womb thus: if it is inflamed and closed up, one must foment with gentle fomentations until the mouth of the womb becomes soft; after the fomentations, flush with whichever enemas seem to be needed, choosing from among those that are more purgative or more softening; after the enemas, apply softening suppositories; if the mouth does not open readily, foment and soften with suppositories from those I shall write out, until it opens. If the fluxes do not stop in response to these measures, purge the head, and so manage the regimen: if there is difficulty urinating, let her drink ass's milk; with boiled and cultivated and wild vegetables, except garlic, leeks, kale, and the long radish; of sea creatures — the smooth ray, the scorpion-fish, the conger, the torpedo-ray, the eel, the flounder, the goby — one must boil them in onions and coriander, in sweet and fatty brine until doubly boiled through; of flesh, preferably pork, second choice lamb or mutton, boiled rather than roasted, and with their broths; with white honey-sweet diluted wine; with baths but not of the head, not very hot nor in large amount. If in response to this diaita they recover from the ulceration and inflammation but the wombs remain moist, instead of baths use abstinence from bathing; instead of tawny wines use dark wines; instead of more diluted use more unmixed; instead of barley-meal use breads; instead of fish use roasted meats and all drying foods of the kind we use for diarrheas; avoid all enemas except wine and water; fumigate with astringents; it is best to keep food in the stomach. If a patient is young, induce vomiting when fasting, make her vomit frequently, and afterwards let her take a small meal. This is the diaita suited to these fluxes. White flux: there flows something white like donkey's urine, and swellings on the face, and both areas below the eyes are swollen, dropsy-like, and the eyes are not at all well-looking, the brightness is absent, the eyes are rheumy and dim-sighted, and the complexion is pallid and blister-like, and the lower belly puffs up, and there are things in the jaws — reddish, small, watery, and bad — in small amounts, and swellings in the legs, and if you press with the finger it sinks in as if in dough, and the mouth fills with saliva; there is heartburn when they are fasting, and they vomit something like sharp water; and if she walks uphill, she gets breathless more quickly, and there is suffocation, and chilling of the legs, and loss of control of the knees, and aphthae in the mouth, and the womb opens abnormally, and something heavy like lead has settled in its mouth; and pains extend through the thighs, and everything below goes cold, from the lower belly downward to the feet, and the soles of the feet become numb, and they cannot set foot down. 116 [20] It is difficult to free such patients from their diseases: for the years have advanced and the toils grow old along with them — unless some spontaneous fortunate occurrence comes to resolve things. For these patients one must drain, when things are in excess, with medicinal drinks that do not purge yellow bile, but rather diuretic ones taken as a drink are beneficial to these women, and purgings of the head, and abstinence from baths, and white cuscuta is beneficial, and walks, and every form of dryness in the diaita. Doing these things, they do not become altogether well, but they get along more easily. Treatment for white flux: what is purged is white-yellowish, and when she urinates it bites and scratches, and it ulcerates the womb, and sharp fever grips her, and great heat, thirst, sleeplessness, and they become out of their minds, and when she exerts herself breathlessness takes hold of her, and the limbs slacken. 117 [5] Give this patient white poppy to drink, and stinging-nettle fruit — better also the root and leaves and sumac and gall-nut of sweet pomegranate; give these to drink in astringent wine, and pomegranate juice, and mix in goat's cheese; fumigate below with emmer, winter wild figs, olive leaves, and itch-weed, and a third part of gourd rind, the rest equal; and let her drink gruels of boiled ingredients, and gruels with almonds and sesame, and let her be swung in a litter and ride in a vehicle and not be still. Another flux: what is purged is like much sheep's urine, the complexion is white, and she is swollen all over, and blisters rise up on the shins, and if you press with the finger the shins and feet are pitted in hollow-shaped impressions, and if she eats anything she fills up and becomes inflamed, and when she has walked or done some work breathlessness and distress take hold of her, and the complexion is white, sometimes slightly yellowish. 118 [5] For this woman, if she is strong and young, and the other things appear to be the case, give at the outset purging drugs both upward and downward; and purge the head — if she is phlegmatic, with those drugs by which phlegm is purged; if bilious, with those by which bile is purged. And if it is the right season of the year, and if she is not by nature prone to spleen, and if any of the conditions mentioned are present — give whey: boil it down and have her drink as much as possible for as long a time as possible. In the evening, give diluted sweet wine if needed; she should not touch solid food. If she is weak, give the least possible gruel, and let her refrain from bathing. When the right moment seems to you to have come, let her stop the drinking, and after the purging let her use foods, avoiding fatty, sharp, sweet, and salty things, and sharp vegetables. Let her use rock-fish and sheep's meat, or poultry, or hare; ash-baked bread or roasted grain-cakes; let her use boiled vegetables, and wild and cultivated raw vegetables without sharp ones. Let her walk in the morning and after eating. When, while doing these things, she seems to you to be drier, irrigate the uterus with wine-lees; then after an interval of three or four days, irrigate again with astringent fluids; and withholding further treatment, if she is dry, keep her at rest. If she is by nature bilious or phlegmatic and has grown thin from the diaita (regimen / way of living) and the drug-drinking, and is unable to recover, let her drink cow's milk for forty days, warm, straight from the cow. For the phlegmatic woman it is better to use the least possible solid food while she is drinking milk; let the measure be six Attic kotylai; let her begin from two, and add a kotyle each day until six is reached, and from that point decrease little by little; and after the milk-drinking, restore her with solid food and diaita. After the milk-drinking, let her drink maidenhair-fern early in the morning while fasting: dry it, pound it, sift it through a fine sieve, and give it in fragrant dark wine well mixed with water. If the disease turns back, apply a vapor-bath to her whole body, purge downward again with drugs, and after that irrigate the uterus: if she is by nature phlegmatic, with cnidian berry or the root of thapsia; if she is bilious, with the juice of scammony, or with wild gourd — pound it, pour on two kotylai of water, boil down to half, mix honey and narcissus oil or flower oil into this; let the honey be a quarter of a kotyle, and the oil a measure one-and-a-half times the honey; then re-irrigate with honey, wine, and oil alone; apply fumigation; and withhold treatment for three or four days. Let her drink maidenhair-fern. If she does not conceive, the disease turns back, and as it turns back she perishes. In those who are older when this disease seizes them, the uterus rots, and very few escape. Another flow: the discharge is like that from a raw egg, greenish-white; it ulcerates the genitals; the feet and shins become somewhat swollen; the hollows beneath the eyes swell up; the eyes are wet and rheumy; when she walks, breathlessness seizes her; and weakness comes on. 119 [5] The disease is phlegmatic by nature; and if she is not purged, and fever arises from bile being set in motion, the outcome is bad. This disease seizes older women more than younger ones. When it is thus, if there is severe swelling, give a drug to drink downward that will draw out both phlegm and bile; if the swelling is not severe and phlegm is pressing on her, give a drug upward; if she is able, let her be purged with hellebore; if not, with whatever draws bile and phlegm. After the drugs, give boiled whey to drink for as many days as possible with a little salt; let her nibble mint; in the evening let her not touch solid food, but take a little gruel, and drink sweet wine after it if she wants; if sweet wine is not at hand, whey. Boil ass's milk and give it for four days; do these things in the evening, unless she has fever at night. If she is by nature prone to spleen, flatulent, or blood-deficient, give neither whey nor milk if she is full of wind; if not, purge downward with downward-acting drugs. When the right moment seems to you to have come, irrigate the uterus — first twice or three times with the wine-lees preparation, and after that with the juice of scammony; pour on sweet wine, about one Attic kotyle, and a quarter of a kotyle of oil — best of all narcissus oil, or if not, flower oil. Re-irrigate the next day with a kotyle of wine, a quarter kotyle of honey, resin at a third the measure of honey, and oil equal to the honey. If the outflow from the irrigation continues phlegmatic, irrigate again after an interval of three or four days, drawing out two doses of cnidian berry; re-irrigate with the same; if cnidian berry is not at hand, one dose from the root of thapsia, and re-irrigate with the same. When the outflow in response to these irrigations has been purged and something bloody appears, like from a sore, re-irrigate with astringent fluids. If after these procedures, when asked, she says the mouth of the uterus is hard and painful, irrigate in the same manner with the preparation containing picerion, until the uterus is dried out and she seems healthy. On the intermediate days between irrigations, let her drink elderberry fruit, hare's rennet, poppy shell, nettle seed, and the rind of sweet pomegranate, grinding equal parts of each; mix in barley-meal and maidenhair-fern, fasting, in fragrant dark wine. Let her use soft foods that are not salty or sharp; meats are better than fish — that is to say, poultry, or hare — and let her bathe in warm water, not much. If the flow does not abate but persists and the uterus remains moist, fumigate with the preparation containing pomegranate rind; then let her go to her husband; and if she conceives, she becomes well. The older women cannot recover and perish from weakness. Another flow: the discharge is greenish-yellow like from an egg, and thick; the lower belly rises up and becomes hard; if you touch it, she is in pain; she grinds her teeth; fever is present; pain goes to the pubic area, to the genitals, to the lower belly, to the flanks; faintness, restlessness, chills, copious sweat, pulses felt by the hand — faint, failing — and they perish quickly. 120 [5] If she survives, her color changes and becomes like honeycomb wax; the skin yields when pressed by the finger and takes an impression as if in dough; the feet and legs swell. The disease arises most often when something is bruised or putrefied inside during labor; older women suffer more from it, and this kind of disease is not at all benign. Another flow: the discharge is like the juice from roasted meat, and the genitals ulcerate wherever else it drips on the skin; rigors seize her, along with sharp frequent large fever and shuddering together; pain is present in all the flows; she swells all over, and the part below the navel as well, and the legs, and the color becomes jaundice-like. 121 [5] This kind of flow arises from the following: when the blood that has been drawn out becomes somewhat bile-mixed and is not purged. When it is thus, a drug must be drunk — if she is strong, from hellebore; if weak, root-drug and elaterion; and later, goat's milk — or purge downward with what purges bile and phlegm. Irrigate the uterus with the cabbage-juice preparation; let her drink sage, St. John's-wort, linseed, equal parts of each, in austere dark wine, given to drink fasting. If the genitals are ulcerated, re-irrigate with picerion, then give a drug to drink, and smear the ulcerations with picerion, resin, myrrh, flower of silver; let her rinse with warm water from myrtle and sage; let her use foods that are neither salty nor sharp, so that the urine does not become biting; she should abstain from sea-foods and from beef, mutton, and pork; use the other meats boiled; let her eat bread and drink old fragrant dark wine. If she does these things and does not become well, apply a vapor-bath to her whole body and the next day give a drug upward, then after an interval give one downward; and if there is whey, after the drugs boil it and give it to drink each day; in the evening use gruel; sweet white wine. If there is no whey, let her drink boiled ass's milk for four days, and in the evening use the same things. Thereafter, let her drink warm cow's milk for forty days; during the day let her eat virtually nothing, for this is best — she is purged, nourished, and the sharpness is blunted by such milk. In the evening let her dine on a little roasted bird-meat and a small ash-baked roll; drink old dark full-bodied wine, as long as she is drinking the milk — if the flow is copious and the sharp humor is causing disturbance. If she does these things and conceives, she becomes well. In older women the disease sometimes turns back and they perish; in younger women it is not fatal, but it is prolonged. Treatment of ichor-like flow: the discharge is somewhat bloody, like the juice from roasted meat; it bites like brine; it eats away and ulcerates the genitals; the uterus becomes ulcerated, and the surrounding area, the thighs, and other parts; when it drips on clothing it stains and the stain remains hard to wash out. The belly rises up and becomes hard; if she touches it she has pain; she has heat; pain goes to the genitals, the fundament, the lower belly, the flanks, the haunches, and the loins; cold weakness; and the color changes toward jaundice. 122 [15] If the time and disease are prolonged, all these things take hold much more; the thighs are raised up; the feet swell; the legs swell from the loins. The disease takes hold when something of the embryo is bruised or putrefied in labor or miscarriage. One must apply vapor-baths, fumigate, and give drinks to drink; all these always hold back the flow; administer ass's milk and the other things; and give an emetic if needed. If she is not free of fever and is in a faint state, dry vapor-bath is better. When the uterus turns toward the head and the suffocation ends there, it weighs the head down; in different women the sign is held to be in different places. 123 [5] The sign is this: they say the veins in the nose and the parts under the eyes are painful; stupor seizes her; and she foams when she recovers. This woman must be bathed in a great deal of warm water; if she does not respond to that, in cold water poured over the head, with laurel and myrtle boiled in the water and then cooled; let her head be anointed with rose-scented unguent; let pleasant-smelling substances be fumigated beneath her, and foul-smelling ones held under her nose; let her eat cabbage and drink its juice. If the uterus presses against the heart and chokes it, and the forced-out air rushes back, she wanders and writhes; in some cases she is immediately loosened and the wind descends and passes out, or she vomits frothy matter — and this constitutes the relief. 124 [5] In those where it does not withdraw: pound leek seed and poppy, dilute with a kyathos of water, and give to drink; a draft of a kyathos of white vinegar also helps; or juniper berry and sage with vinegar and these together, or wine. She must be warmed; or use goose fat, a waxed preparation with resin worked in, and melt pitch in it, and make suppositories. When the uterus falls against the hypochondria it chokes; when the extreme point of the affliction is there, a burning, sharp vomiting also takes hold, and she is somewhat relieved for a short time; then continuous pain goes to the head and neck. 125 [15] Apply warm compresses if it chokes upward; fumigate foul-smelling things under the nose gradually — for if they are applied all at once, the uterus shifts downward and disturbance results; pleasant-smelling things below. Give castor and fleabane to drink. When it has been drawn downward, fumigate foul-smelling things below and pleasant-smelling things under the nose. If the pains have stopped, give a drug to drink downward, and afterward give ass's milk or whey to drink — unless she is by nature spleen-prone, or blood-deficient, or pallid, or has ringing in the ears by family tendency, or those in whom diseases have been habitual from youth; do not move the upper cavity in those who are dim-sighted or who have congestion around the throat and the rest; give barley-water; if she is quite fit for it, let her vomit also. The best irrigation is that with narcissus; the suppository, that through cantharis. If the uterus presses up against the hypochondria, she is choked as if by hellebore; she becomes orthopneic; there are powerful heartburn-cramps; some of them also vomit sharp saliva at times, and the mouth fills with water, and the legs become cold. 126 [25] Such women, if the uterus does not quickly withdraw from the hypochondria, become speechless, and numbness holds the area around the head and tongue. If you find such women speechless and with their teeth locked fast together, apply wool on a probe toward the uterus, pressing as strongly as possible, wrapped around a feather, dipped in white Egyptian oil or myrtle oil or bacchari oil or marjoram oil; into the nostrils, take some of the black head-drug on a probe and pack it in; if this is not available, smear the nostrils with the juice, or dip a feather in vinegar and insert it, smearing the nostrils, or apply sneezing-powder; when the mouth is shut and there is speechlessness, give castor to drink in wine; smear the nostrils by dipping the finger in seal oil; let the wool remain in place until they settle; when it has stopped, it must be removed. If after its removal they withdraw again, apply the wool again in the same manner; fumigate under the nostrils — scraping a black goat's horn or deer's horn, sprinkling it on hot embers so that it fumes as much as possible, and let her draw the smell upward through the nostrils as much as she is able; best of all, fumigate seal oil — covering it with charcoal placed on a potsherd, hold the head over it so that the smell enters as much as possible, and drip in the fat, and let her draw the smell upward; the mouth must be kept closed. These things must be done if the uterus falls upward. If the uterus turns toward the liver, the woman suddenly becomes speechless, her teeth are locked fast together, and her color becomes livid; she suffers these things suddenly, being otherwise healthy. 127 [20] This happens most with long-unmarried maidens and with widows who have been widowed while still very young; it happens most with those who are altogether infertile and barren, because these conditions come from childbirths — for the post-partum purging does not occur, and the uterus does not swell up, nor soften, nor expel. When it is thus, with the hand gently push the swelling away from the liver downward; bind the hypochondria with a bandage; open the mouth and pour in wine mixed as fragrant as possible, as needed; hold foul-smelling things to the nose and fumigate; toward the uterus use fragrant and such aromatic things. When she has been treated, purge; she must be given a drug downward — if bilious, one that purges bile; if phlegmatic, one that purges phlegm. Then give boiled ass's milk to drink; vapor-bathe the uterus with fragrant things; apply the suppository with buprestis; the next day, netopon oil; then after an interval of two days, irrigate the uterus with fragrant preparations; then after an interval of one day, fumigate with aromatics. Do these things for the widow; and it is best for her to conceive. Persuade the maiden to live with a husband; do not raise anything to her nostrils [the text is uncertain here: the word μηδὲν is bracketed in the source, possibly indicating a lacuna or scribal interpolation, and the instruction appears to contradict surrounding fumigation prescriptions]; nor give her the drug to drink; let her drink castor and fleabane fasting in wine as fragrant as possible for twenty days; let her not anoint her head with fragrant oil, nor smell fragrant things. If the uterus becomes inflamed against the side, if you touch it, it appears hard; and when it falls against the hypochondria it chokes; she vomits sharp phlegm, and her teeth are set on edge; and when she has vomited she seems to be relieved. 128 [5] When the uterus moves downward, it withdraws from the belly now here now there — most often toward the flanks; sometimes it falls into the bladder as well, and strangury takes hold; and toward the fundament, and she feels as if she needs to defecate; and the monthly periods come earlier or later than customary, or do not appear at all. For this woman, immediately when the disease comes on — if the upper parts are choking — apply warm compresses and fumigate foul-smelling things under the nose, and fragrant things toward the uterus; give female fleabane and castor in wine fasting to drink; when they settle according to their nature, fumigate gently; let her drink diuretics. Do these things as long as pains are present; when they stop, vapor-bathe her whole body, then give a drug downward — if bilious, one that purges bile; if phlegmatic, one that draws phlegm; give ass's milk or boiled goat's whey to drink. If she is spleen-prone, do not give the milk or the whey. During the purgings, use soft and laxative foods; fish are better than meats. Vapor-bathe the uterus; purge with suppositories and irrigate it; after fumigation below the genitals let her go to her husband. Resolution of the disease comes when she conceives. If the uterus falls against the sides, cough takes hold; there is pain beneath the side; a hard mass attaches like a ball; when touched it causes pain as from a sore; she wastes away; it seems like peripneumonia; she is pulled sideways and becomes stooped; the monthly periods do not appear, and in some women they appear and are lost after appearing, when they do occur being weak, scanty, and bad-looking, as you can see; and conception does not occur during that time. 129 [5] When it is thus, she must drink elaterion as a downward drug; be washed in a great deal of warm water; apply such warm compresses as she will accept; apply suppositories by which blood is purged; roast linseed, pound and sift it; white poppy helps, and sage with fine barley-meal; shave the brine-coating from goat's cheese, mix these together — one part cheese and one part unsalted barley-meal — and give fasting in wine; when evening comes give a thick kykeon with honey poured over it to drink; give such drinks as she needs; apply vapor-baths frequently; pour on warm water; with the hand gently, softly, and evenly push the uterus away from the side; bind the side with a broad bandage; drink cow's milk, as much as possible, for forty days; use foods as soft as possible. The disease is urgent and deadly, and few escape even when treated thus. If the uterus is lodged in the lumbar region or in the flank, and breath moves upward, and choking is present, and frequent breathlessness seizes her, and she is unwilling to move: grind sulfur or asphalt or hemlock or myrrh, pour cooked honey over it, make a long thick suppository, and insert it into the rectum. 131 [5] If the uterus coils itself into the space between the hips, pain holds the lower belly; the legs are pulled tight; she has pain in the groins; when she defecates, sharp pains hold her; the stool is passed by force and in small amounts; the urine drips; and faintness takes hold. When it is thus, one must attach a small tube to the bladder and irrigate warm oil into the uterus; apply vapor-bath or bathe in much warm water; let her sit in oil and water. Fumigate foul-smelling things below the genitals and fragrant things below the nose. When the pain stops, give a drug upward; the lower cavity must not be disturbed. When the uterus has settled, give a drug downward and ass's milk — unless she is spleen-prone. Then vapor-bathe and irrigate the uterus with the laurel preparation; apply a cleansing suppository that will not bite. Then, after fumigation with aromatics, let her go to her husband; if she conceives, she becomes well. Many are childless, and many become crippled in their legs. In those whose uterine mouth tilts to one side and presses on the hip-joint — for such things do happen, obstructing the uterus from being purged, from receiving seed, and from bearing children — vapor-bathe this woman with fragrant substances; and after the vapor-bath, if signs are given, draw it away from the hip-joint with the finger; then straighten it with the pine-wood instruments and the lead; for it will not be forced quickly, as has been said. 132 [15] Whenever things are in their natural state and the openings have become open, cleanse with soft suppositories and do everything else in an appropriate manner. In those women in whom the womb falls against the hip, if it does not quickly draw away and settle back into its place, it dries against the hip; and the mouth of the womb is necessarily turned away and gone upward; and when it has been turned away, it closes; and from the turning-away and the closing, hardness results, and it shuts further, and the mouth of the womb is disabled. The blocked passages send the monthly discharge back up to the breasts, and the nipples grow heavy; the lower belly is raised up, and women who have no experience think they are with child, for they suffer such things as pregnant women themselves suffer, up to seven or eight months. For the belly swells in proportion to the time, and the chest rises, and milk seems to form; but when this period passes, the nipples shrink and become smaller, and the belly undergoes the same, and the milk has disappeared unnoticed, and the belly, at that time when birth ought to occur, when it comes, has wasted away and collapses. 133 [60] When such things happen, the womb contracts strongly in a short time, and its mouth can no longer be found, so completely do all parts draw together and dry up. Hard little swellings form in the breasts, some larger, some smaller; these do not suppurate but grow always harder; then from them hidden karkinoi grow. When karkinoi are about to develop, the mouths are first made bitter, and whatever they eat seems to them all to be bitter, and if one offers more they refuse to take it and act distressfully. They are mad in their thinking, and their eyes are hard, and their sight is not sharp; pains shoot from the breasts to the throat and under the shoulder blades; thirst takes hold; the nipples are parched; these women are wasted throughout the whole body; the nostrils are dry and blocked, not rising; the pneuma (breath) is scanty, and they smell nothing; and in the ears pain does not arise, but a hardening sometimes does. When they have advanced so far in time, they cannot become well, but they perish from these diseases. But if they are treated before reaching such a state, and the monthly discharge is released, recovery takes place. One must treat women in such a condition as follows. First of all, if you take hold of her while she is still strong, examining the rest of the body, administer a purging drug of whatever kind it seems she needs; when you have restored the body, then proceed to the treatment of the womb. If the whole body seems not to need to be moved at all, and the causes do not appear to have arisen from there, but the womb has the disease in itself, begin the treatment as follows. First, apply a vapor treatment (pyriē) to the womb in this way: take a clay pot holding about two hekteis, fit a basket-lid on top and fasten it so that no steam escapes; then cut out the bottom of the basket and make a hole; into the hole insert a reed, as long as a cubit; the reed must fit the basket well, so that no steam escapes anywhere. When you have prepared these things, place the basket on the clay pot, plastering it with mud; when you have done this, dig a pit as deep as two feet, and long enough to hold the clay pot; then build a fire with wood until you have made the pit red-hot; when it is red-hot, remove the wood and the coals that will be largest and most thoroughly burning, but leave the ash and the embers in the pit; when the clay pot boils and the steam rises up, if the flow of steam is too hot, hold back; otherwise, have her sit on the tip of the reed and introduce it into the vaginal opening, then apply the vapor; if it cools, throw in red-hot coals, taking care not to make the vapor too intense; if, with the coals being added, the vapor becomes more intense than needed, remove some coals. The vapor treatment must be prepared in calm, windless weather, so as not to cause cooling; she must be wrapped around with garments; into the clay pot throw dried garlic and pour over water so that it stands two fingers' depth and has soaked as thoroughly as possible, and pour over it also seal-oil; then heat in this way. The vapor treatment must be carried on for a long time. 133 (50) [95] After the vapor treatment, if she is able, let her bathe — the whole body as she finds pleasant, and the loins and the parts below the navel with more water. For the evening meal give barley-cake or bread and boiled garlic. On the following day, if she is relaxed from the vapor treatment, let that day be skipped; if not, apply the vapor again. While she is receiving the vapor, if she is able to examine herself, tell her to touch the mouth of the womb. This vapor treatment fills the womb with wind and brings it more into an upright position and opens the mouth. Since this is the nature of the vapor treatment and it is capable of doing these things, one must apply the vapor in this way. When you have applied the vapor, throw in more garlic and pour on more seal-oil; do these things until the womb seems to have been filled with wind and the mouth drawn strongly upward, for with this vapor treatment such will be the case. After the vapor treatments, regulate the diaita (regimen / ordering of life) as when she was previously receiving vapor treatment. When the womb has been stirred up and has become easily movable, apply a vapor treatment using fennel roots, having prepared another clay pot in the same way, washed the fennel roots on both sides, and crushed them, put them into the clay pot, poured water over them, and apply the vapor in the same way. After this, bathe her, and in the evening give a barley-cake for supper; if she wants bread, and small bulbs, and small cuttlefish, cook them in wine and oil and provide them to eat. During the vapor treatment, try to touch the mouth of the womb; this vapor treatment brings the womb very close. These things must be done for five or six days, observing the woman; if she is relaxing and becoming weak, allow as much interval as is needed; if she is not relaxing, apply the vapor every day. After the vapor treatments, try to apply as a suppository the fattest pine-splint of pine-resin; let the lubricant be fatty; make them six fingers long, five or six in number, tapering in shape; let one be a little thicker than the other; let the thicker be about the size of the index finger, in shape like a finger, thinnest at the tip, growing thicker toward the body; make them as smooth and as rounded as possible, taking care that there shall be no splinter. Apply first the thinnest; when it has been inserted, let her rest to keep watch that it does not fall out. Let the tip be applied first, then always more, at the same time turning and pushing the pine-splint in a circular motion; and whenever she has received a little of it, hold at that small amount, taking care it does not fall out; then push again in the same way, until it is four fingers inside the mouth of the womb; when she has received this, insert the next one, removing the one that is in place at the same time, so that before the mouth closes, the other pine-splint may be in place while it is still upright and open; it will be done this way if, as the one is taken out, the other is being applied. 133 (100) [160] One must also fashion out of lead, beaten into a shape like the thickest pine-splint, hollow so as to hold together; let the thickness of the lead be beaten out as lead is beaten for wounds; so that the mouth of the plug may be smooth and will not cause injury, make these in the same way as the pine-splints. When the lead plug has been made, fill it with ground sheep tallow; when it has been prepared, take out the pine-splint and insert the lead piece. If the lead piece, when inserted, causes a burning sensation, remove the lead piece and insert the pine-splint again, and dip the lead piece in cold water; then reinsert it and take away the pine-splint; something must always be in place. It is better to use the pine-splint by day, and the lead piece by night. If she wants to stand up, let her do so with care, so that the plug stays still; if not, reinsert it immediately. If none of the pine-splints that have been applied are being received, make them thinner, until they are amenable. If the mouth cannot be opened and the womb will not come near, go back again to the original vapor treatment; from the first to the second, until they have softened and are coming as close as possible. And when they have had their mouths opened, apply suppositories, having made two, of the size of an olive; let one of these be in place until it melts, then apply the other. When you are about to apply the suppository, dip the suppository made from resin — for it separates the mouth of the womb — in rose-oil or iris-oil. Before the lead piece is to be in place, it must be positioned so that it will be set straight in the mouth going inward into the body; then apply softening suppositories; bathe with warm water both before the suppositories and after, and give a dinner of sea-foods. When two or three days have passed since the application, examine; if the mouth of the womb is in good condition and clean, cease this suppository, and after this use softening suppositories; when the inflammation has subsided, let the pine-splint or lead piece always be in place. If the mouth of the womb is not yet clean, apply the drugs again in the same way, and do the other things as has been stated. One must also insufflate the mouth and the womb as follows: make a suppository with fig and apply it; make two of these as well. Before applying, give the vapor treatment with the fennel vapor described previously; after the vapor treatment, on the following day apply the drug having bathed her; bathe also in the evening; dip this too in oil when it is applied. After the cleansing, on the next day softening suppositories help until inflammation arises; after the inflammation, fashion the pine-splint according to the earlier account. Do with regard to this suppository such things as with the earlier one as well; if, having been applied once, it seems to have sufficiently insufflated the womb, stop; if it still requires it, apply again in the same way as before. After this, when it seems to you that the time is right, prepare the vapor treatment from aromatic fumigants; it is prepared in the following way: pound galingale and sift it, about a small bowl's worth, and the same amount of perfumer's reed, and an equal amount of perfumer's rush-grass, and an equal amount of cardamom, and Ethiopian cumin, and anise, and dried rue, and St. John's wort, and fennel seed; when you have prepared these things, pour into the clay pot six kotylai of dry wine, the most fragrant white wine available, sprinkle in about a quarter of the pounded materials, and stir; then pour over about a three-obol weight of Egyptian ointment of the best quality, or marjoram-scent, or finest iris-oil; when you have poured it in, stir; apply a gentle vapor treatment for as long as possible; bathe before the vapor treatment, and apply the vapor for two or three days; when she has finished the vapor treatment, one must place a cover over it so that it does not lose the vapor; after this make use of the pine-splints and the lead pieces; when you have applied the vapor for two or three days, leave off two or three others; on the intervening days bathe twice a day. 133 (150) [195] Eat boiled and raw leeks, and radishes, and cress, and roasted and boiled garlic, and the drink more unmixed, and make use of the sea-foods mentioned earlier. When the intervening days have passed, apply the vapor, sprinkling in a very little of each of the pounded ingredients into the existing vapor preparation, and pour in wine; if it seems necessary, oil too, and be treated with this vapor. When it seems to you that the vapor treatments are going well, and the mouth is soft and open as required, and the womb itself is near, after the last vapor treatment on the next day apply the drug with myrrh; let there be two suppositories; after the cleansing on the following day apply the softening suppositories until the womb is no longer inflamed; after this make use of the pine-splints and lead pieces. Judging the strength of the body, apply vapor again as written; if it seems that the existing vapor preparation is still sufficient, add to it the fumigants as before, and pour in wine and oil; if this vapor preparation seems useless, prepare a new one from the beginning. When you have pre-treated with vapor again in the same way as you did before, apply the drug with the tallow; make two suppositories, and apply in the same way as before; after the applications, on the next day apply the softening suppositories according to the earlier account; use this drug every fourth day, pre-treating with vapor; always make fresh drug at each application, until a blood-tinged discharge is produced; when such a discharge has occurred, let it stop. Regulate the diaita in this way: inquire on which days her monthly discharge was occurring; beginning from these, follow this diaita: first let her bathe in much warm water, except the head; when she has finished, give sharp cheese and rue in dark wine, mixed equal parts; then sprinkle barley-meal on it and give it to drink straight from the bath; then give a morning meal at the right time, to eat barley-cake or bread and boiled or raw leeks, and all similarly pungent things among those written above, and porridge now and then, not removing the froth, and breaking in much silphium, and boiling in much garlic; make use as relishes of all cartilaginous fish, boiled in sweet-and-sour sauce, small bulbs, small cuttlefish in wine and oil; drink as much leaf-decoction as possible, and eat as much as possible both at the morning meal and at the evening meal; bathe after the evening meal when about to rest. Let her follow this diaita for five or six days; after these days, in the morning give on an empty stomach the berry of elder, about six kernels, in unmixed wine, and cuttlefish eggs, about ten or twelve; grind these together smooth and give them to drink in the morning on an empty stomach; after drinking, wait, then bathe, and drink the rue and cheese, and so take a morning meal from what has been written above; dine later, and bathe twice a day. Let this diaita continue for thirteen or fourteen days. 133 (200) [5] When these days have passed, make swallowable pills from silphium-juice, about the size of a bean, and give this first; after this, do the other things written above. When twenty-five days have passed in this diaita, do the other things the same, but before the morning meal, when she is about to eat, first grind about four cloves of garlic and sharp cheese about the size of an astragalos-bone, and mix in a little barley-meal, and make a cake, and eat this first; before dinner, drink unmixed wine, and so take food; for the rest, follow the same diaita. When nine or ten intervening days remain in the period, give along with the eggs and elder also Ethiopian cumin and castor-gland, about an obol's weight. When two days remain, release her from all of these drinks and swallowable pills, and give the drug with pine-splint, having bathed on an empty stomach; after drinking the drug, give mercury-plant and cabbage boiled together in water, seasoned in sweet-and-sour sauce with salt and silphium and oil, at the morning meal; give these both to eat and to drink the broth itself, and the drink more unmixed; make use as relishes of boiled octopus or small cuttlefish. These things at the morning meal; at the evening meal, goat meat, or mutton, or lamb, double-boiled, and leeks, and any of the other pungent things as she wishes; let her bathe after the evening meal. This diaita for the last two days. If with this diaita the monthly discharge has not been drawn down, the next month follow the same diaita from the beginning up to the last two days; on these two days, on the day before the last, having made suppositories, apply them according to the earlier account, using the drug prepared in water; let it be applied after bathing first. One must also observe how the womb is, and at all times how it will be in good condition, and whether the mouth is straight and open as it should be. And if it seems that vapor treatment is needed before the application; if the monthly discharge breaks forth, if it is copious, use fewer baths; if less, more; if it has given signs but is not coming, treat again with the same diaita until the monthly discharge appears; when it has come once, it is best for such women to conceive. This is the treatment of all similar diseases. If the womb touches the hip and is pressed against it, there is a hardness toward the flank, and pains of the lower belly, and the pain falls into the flank itself and into the loins and into the legs, and it stretches taut; and they suppurate and fill with packing; these women, when they have a flowing discharge, will be destroyed if you do not cut or cauterize. 134 [35] When the condition is such, give a downward-purging drug to drink, and bathe with much warm water, and apply a vapor treatment to the womb, and pour old urine brought to a boil into the hollow of the bath-tub, and have her sit around it, wrapping the woman in a garment so that no steam escapes; when the urine has cooled, throw red-hot iron pieces into the urine and apply vapor until she says she is seeing dimly and is going faint; bathe her from the vapor treatment with warm water; then, having touched the mouth of the womb with a finger, draw it toward the healthy hip, and at nights apply softening suppositories. When she says it is straight, having first treated with aromatic vapor, apply the softening suppositories again, but also lead pieces for three days, one each day; after these, the echētroson or squill for three days. After this, examining the monthly discharges, learn whether they are bile-laden, or phlegm-laden, or whether the blood is corrupted, and if she needs blood to be purged, apply — whatever you think she needs most — and wash out with similar agents; apply the suppositories until clean blood is being brought up, and carry these out for three days. Let rendered deer-tallow be applied by dipping soft wool in it; then during the day let her use fumigation with aromatic substances, and so go to her husband. If the disease arises from childbirth, having purged everything from the urine vapor-treatment, immediately proceed to the aromatic fumigants, and then, having bathed, let her apply white Egyptian ointment toward the healthy hip and lie on that side. If the womb does not shift in response to these measures, let her drink, on an empty stomach, five of the black berries of the sweet-root in fragrant wine, and with her food let her eat garlic raw, roasted, and boiled; let her use as little relish as possible. If she does not recover, purge her in the same way as for the earlier condition. With this disease, if she does not promptly conceive, she becomes barren. If in this condition the monthly discharge does not occur and fever takes hold, first purge with drugs upward, principally; if she is weak, downward; and after the drug-drinking, if she seems to you phlegmatic, let her vomit on an empty stomach and with food, and she will for the most part recover. If the womb has been released toward the hip, the thick monthly discharge does not occur; but pain reaches the lower belly; and it reaches also into the flank, and there is a biting sensation. 135 [5] Whenever she is in this condition: bathe her in much hot water, and give her garlic to eat as much as possible, and milk to drink sufficiently, then unmixed wine, and apply fumigation to the whole body, and give a purging drug upward; but if she is rather weak, downward. If she is healed, fumigate the womb with fennel — wormwood is also mixed in — and when she has just been freshly fumigated, draw the mouth of the womb gently with the finger toward the sound hip, soothing the mouth and the afflicted parts as you manipulate them, and apply a softening suppository, then lead suppositories, and straightaway squill, then narcissus oil, leaving a gap of one day. When it seems to you that she is sufficiently clean, let her apply nētōpon in wool; on the following day, rose oil. During the menstrual flow, it is better not to apply anything; but if it does not come, give four cantharides — wingless, footless, and headless — and five black berries of glykyside, and cuttlefish eggs, and a little celery seed to drink in wine. And if pain is present and strangury grips her, let her sit in hot water and drink honeyed water well diluted; if she is not purged, let her drink the drug again. If the flow comes, after fasting let her drink [kykeon] and come together with her husband. If this does not occur, give her something that will draw it down, having regard to the woman's strength, and then it is safe for her to go to her husband; for if she conceives, she becomes well. During the purging, if it flows abundantly, let her eat mercury plant, and boiled tender octopus, and use soft foods. If, in a woman who has recently given birth, the womb lodges against the hip or against the flank, apply white Egyptian oil or rose oil as a suppository on the other hip, and it is better for her to lie on the sound hip. Let her drink four black berries of glykyside, and elderberry fruit in such a quantity as a tortoise-shell, and castor bean the size of a bean; let her use soft foods. Mercury plant boiled like cabbage would suit, taken before the meal; let her also drink off the liquid. And let her eat sharp foods, except for radish, onion, and cress; lettuce is best. 137 [30] Now concerning whatever diseases come about from the womb, I declare the following. Whenever the womb is displaced from its place, it falls against one part or another at different times; and wherever it falls, it plants down strong pains. If it touches the bladder, it causes pain, and they cannot receive urine, nor do they draw seed toward themselves, and both parts ache; and if swift resolutions do not occur, in time the womb suppurates in those same regions where it has dried against the tissue — this occurs in the flanks, the groins, and above the pubic region. In the beginning, when the pain grips, treatment should be as follows: apply warm fomentations, and being in hot water is also good; or apply fumigation with sponges wrung out in hot water. And drink from the womb-remedies. If it does not resolve with these, purge downward with a drug, and if necessary upward as well, whichever seems more fitting to be needed. You will distinguish this in the following way: if it presses against the groins and pubic region and bladder, these women need an upward purging drug; if against the flanks and the hypochondria, these women need a downward purging drug. After these purgings, straightaway cleanse the womb. All diseases of this kind occur more in older women than in younger ones, in relation to the cessation of the menses; they also occur in women while still young, whenever they have been widowed for a long time. If it turns toward the rectum, the stools are impeded, and pains grip the lower back and the lower belly and the anus. When the condition is thus, she must be bathed in hot water, and the lower back fumigated, and the posterior region fumigated with foul-smelling substances, and apply whatever cleanses and drives the womb, and give her to drink whatever of the beneficial remedies she will best accept. If it presses down into the groins and the urinary passage, strong pains arise, and numbness in the legs, and the urinary passage is obstructed, and the urine is not passed. The treatment should be as follows: to the nostrils apply fragrant things and perfumes; to the womb, fumigate foul-smelling things. Every occasion is sufficient to stir up the womb, if there is something wrong with it — for it is stirred by chilling of the feet and lower back, by dancing, by husking grain, by splitting wood, by running up or down a slope, and by other things. 138 [5] These things, therefore, one must examine by looking at the whole body, when the presenting diseases rush together; for in such cases there is a necessity to be ill in the greater or the lesser degree; and wherever it flares up most strongly, there the sudden manifestations of the diseases are apparent. Whenever these sudden manifestations rush together, one must take hold of the matter from above, from the whole person. All those chillings of the legs and numbing sensations from cold that occur in womb-conditions — all these go together with upward displacement of the womb. In such cases one must pour hot water down over the womb and the surrounding regions, and warm them and the legs, even when the womb has fallen against something. If the womb rotates to the right side after childbirth, the lochia do not occur, and pain grips the lower belly and the loins and the flanks, and the right leg is heavy and numb and trembles, and one would not be able to touch the mouth of the womb, but will see it smooth and very even. 139 [10] When the condition is thus: give her to drink a drug by which she is purged both upward and downward, but more downward; and fumigate the whole body and especially the womb as gently as possible; and bathe her in hot water twice a day; and trying out the drinks, offer whatever she will best accept; and let her sleep frequently with her husband; and let her eat cabbage. If the womb inclines to the left side or the hip, a sharp and urgent pain grips the loins, the flanks, and the leg, and she limps. 140 [5] When the condition is thus, she must drink the purging drug elaterion, and on the following day apply a fumigation: two choinikes of barley, and chop the leaves of the olive tree finely, and pound and sift oak gall, and a third of a choinix of henbane. Mix these together, and having added oil to the amount of about a half-kotyle in a new earthen pot, fumigate for four days. At night let her drink cow's milk and honey and water, and let her bathe in hot water. If the womb is oblique and both it and its mouth are set at a slant, the menses in this case partly remain hidden and partly appear and then go away, and they are not as before but malignant and less than previously; and conception does not take place during this time; and pain grips the lower belly and the loins and the hip, and draws it to itself. 141 [10] When the condition is thus, she must drink the purging drug elaterion, and be bathed in hot water, and be fumigated. Whenever she has just been freshly fumigated or freshly bathed, let her, slipping in her finger, straighten the opening and correct the mouth of the womb, and let fragrant fumigations be applied below, and offer from the drinks whatever she will best accept by trial; let her use soft foods, and eat garlic both raw and boiled; let her sleep with her husband; let her lie on the sound hip; and the other side should also be fumigated. The disease is hard to get rid of. If they are close to position, she should vomit frequently; fumigate the womb with foul-smelling things, until they are settled into place; let her use a diaita (regimen / ordering of life) that is not laxative. 143 [10] If the womb protrudes outward beyond its natural place, fever grips the pudendum and the rectum, and the urine drips frequently and in small quantities, and the pudendum is bitten sharply. She suffers this if, while in the period following childbirth, she sleeps with her husband. When the condition is thus: boil myrtle berries and shavings of lotus in water, and set the water out in the open air. Foment the pudendum with this, as cold as possible; and grinding it smooth, apply it as a plaster. Then, while drinking water of lentils with honey and vinegar, let her vomit until the womb has been drawn back up. And the bed must be raised at the foot end. Fumigate the pudendum with foul-smelling substances, the nostrils with fragrant ones. Let her use foods as soft and as cold as possible; let her drink white wine well diluted; let her not bathe, nor come together with her husband. If the womb has completely fallen out of the pudendum, it hangs like a scrotum, and pain seizes the lower belly and the loins and the groins; and as time passes, they are unwilling to go back into place. 144 [5] The disease takes hold whenever, being in the period after childbirth, she subjects herself to excessive exertion such as causes the womb to be rubbed, or comes together with her husband during the postnatal purging. When the condition is thus, apply cooling fomentations to the pudendum to soothe it; and having cleaned what is outside, boil pomegranate rind in dark wine, wash around with it, and push it back inside. Then melt together equal amounts of honey and resin, pour it into the pudendum, and let her lie on her back, with her feet stretched out upward. And then, placing sponges against it, bind them from the loins. While the condition persists thus, she should abstain from food and use as little drink as possible, until seven days have passed. If in this way they are willing to respond and withdraw, let that be enough. But if not, having scraped around the rough edges of the womb and thoroughly rinsed them, anoint with the pitch ointment. Then bind the feet to a ladder, with the head below, and push inward with the hand. Then untie, and bind her legs crosswise, and leave her thus for a night and a day, and give a little cold barley water and nothing else. On the following day, laying her on her hip, apply the largest possible cupping vessel, and allow it to draw for a long time; when you remove it, do not scarify, but lay her down and leave her and offer nothing but the barley water, until seven days have passed. If thirst grips her, let her drink the least possible water. When the seven days have passed, let her use foods as soft as possible and as little as possible. Whenever she wishes to go to stool, let her do so lying face upward, until fourteen days have come; then let her be washed with gentle warm fumigations — better with water warm as from the sun. Let her walk as little as possible and not bathe. Do not loosen her bowels. Let her use the most sparing foods, neither sharp nor salty. Let the pudendum be fumigated with foul-smelling things; and when she begins to walk about, let her wear the sling. If the mouth of the womb falls out beyond the pudendum — as happens when the neck of the womb lies close to the pudendum and is wide — this occurs more in women who have not borne children, and occurs most from overexertion: when the woman is overexerted and the womb becomes heated and sweats, its mouth turns out through the neck, having come to be in a place that is more moist, more slippery, and warmer than before; and when this happens, the womb swells outward in the cold, and its mouth goes outward turned inside out. 145 [5] If she is treated quickly, she becomes well; but she is left infertile in any case. If not quickly, the mouth will remain hard and external for her always, and a viscous and foul-smelling serum will flow from it at intervals, and the menses will come if she is still of the age for the marriage bed. As time passes, such a disease becomes incurable, and these women grow old together with their womb held outside. If the womb protrudes, rinse it around with tepid water, then anoint with oil and wine, put it back inside and bind it, and fumigate foul-smelling things below, and fragrant things under the nostrils. If for a longer time the womb protrudes and becomes chilled to the point of numbness, pour down much hot water so that it may be thoroughly warmed. If it is already swelling, mix in vinegar and apply a simultaneous fumigation of water of laurel or myrtle, and push gently inward, and anoint with cerate or with ointment, if it is responsive. If not, rinse around with the water, warm a little vinegar and pour it on, then touch with salt; when they have shrunk, rinse around as stated, put inside, and do the rest of what has been prescribed. Do not apply oil or anything else that is fatty or greasy. If one of the lips of the womb is folded under, the menses do not occur, or they are scant and bad and painful; and when she sleeps with her husband, she aches; whatever the husband sends in comes back out; she does not wish to be touched, nor do they draw in the seed; and pain grips the lower belly and the loins, and the mouth of the womb is not apparent to the touch. 146 [15] When the condition is thus: fumigate with aged urine; then let her vomit, having mixed together lentil decoction with honey and vinegar; then let her wash in hot water; then, having poured white Egyptian oil and salt into a silver or bronze bowl and covering herself, let her sit over the bowl. If the smell of the oil comes to her through her mouth, declare that she will conceive and that her womb is still sound. If the smell does not come through, encourage her; and when she is about to sleep, let her apply the Egyptian oil in wool; on the following day, examine whether the mouth of the womb is any more straight. If she says it is, fumigate with fragrant things for three days, and apply suppositories of a kind that will not cause biting; cleanse and irrigate with fragrant and soft things for the same number of days as before. When the menses come, she should fast and, without bathing, go to her husband, having fumigated herself with aromatics. Many women become infertile from this disease too, if it is not attended to. If the womb is ulcerated and has advanced very far outward, anoint the hands with oil so they are slippery, insert them, and give a pessary of undiluted myrrh, three pellets to swallow, and let her drink fresh green laurel, ground up and dissolved in wine; and she thus becomes well. 148 [5] If the pudendum is irritated from urine: a suppository — grind anise seed and celery fine and apply to the pudendum. If the womb does not stay in place but moves now one way and now another, it causes pains; it disappears from view, then comes out toward the rectum. When she is lying on her back, it remains in place; but when she stands up or wakes from sleep or bends forward or makes some other movement, it comes out — and often even when she is at rest. 149 [20] This woman must rest and keep still as much as possible and not move about; and the bed should be positioned higher at the foot end. Emetics should be used — for one must draw upward through counter-traction. And bathe with astringent things; and fumigate foul-smelling things below, fragrant things under the nostrils. And of pomegranates, choose one that suits best and presents no obstacle, pierce it through the navel to the middle, warm it in wine, and apply it as far inward as possible; then bind with a broad band and hold it in place so it does not slip, but stays and does what is needed. And of poppy heads, give with cheese and barley groats to drink, as has been written concerning the falling against the side. And trying out the drinks, give to drink whatever she will most accept. Let her use the softest foods; and she should not sleep with a man until the womb is able to go to its place. If the womb falls out, grind dry ivy as fine as possible, wrap it in a cloth, and hold it in place; apply nothing greasy. And give her to drink: wheat grains parched, and roasted poppy, and sage, and cyperus, and anise — having ground these fine, dissolved in wine, and added barley bran — give twice a day, a half-kotyle of each measure. If the womb turns toward the legs and feet, you will recognize it thus: the great toes are drawn under the nails, and pain grips the legs and the thighs, and it lies against and presses upon the tendons around the thigh. 150 [5] When the condition is thus, she must be bathed frequently in much hot water, and be fumigated if it pleases her, and fumigate below with foul-smelling things, and she should anoint herself generously with rose perfumed oil. If she suddenly becomes speechless, you would find her legs cold, and her knees and her hands cold too; and if you touch the womb, it is not in its proper order; and the heart pounds, and she grinds her teeth, and there is much sweating, and all else that those seized by the sacred disease suffer, and whatever they do from their ears. 151 For these women one must pour much cold water down over the legs for a time; and do the other things, if needed, as said before. If the womb is displaced and falls against some point and causes pain, boil the scaly bark of the olive, laurel, and cypress shavings in water, put into wool, and apply. 153 [5] Whenever a woman after childbirth lifts something heavier than her nature allows, or pounds grain, or splits wood, or runs, or does other such things, the womb falls out most readily because of these; and sometimes also by sneezing — for what is forced, if she seizes her nose forcibly while sneezing. The womb must be rinsed around with tepid water, then similarly with the boiled juice of beet, then with unmixed dark wine. If it does not respond, one must make softening suppositories; and this must be done before it becomes chilled, and put inside soothingly; then stretch out the legs and cross them, and place something soft under them; and these women must be kept as much as possible from drink, and the bowel must be guarded so that it is not thrown into disorder; and to the nose give something fragrant. Such women must later, if they are not kept quiet but are active, be treated with hellebore; if they do not hold out, also make them vomit, and have them abstain from bathing, be silent, and rest. If the womb is seized with flatulence, the belly swells up and is inflated and rumbles, and the feet swell, as do the hollows of the face, and the skin color becomes unsightly, and the menses are suppressed, and conception does not take place during this time, and she pants, and foams at the mouth, and is restless, and when she wakes from sleep, orthopnoea grips her, and whatever she eats or drinks distresses her, and she groans and is more despondent than before eating, and she is choked, and the tendons are pulled, and the womb and the bladder ache, and it is not possible to touch them with the hand; nor do they pass urine, nor do they receive the seed. 154 [15] When the condition is thus, she must drink a purging drug downward; bathe in hot water and sit in it; and fumigate the whole body frequently, sometimes only as far as the navel, leaving intervals; and apply the things by which she will be cleansed without being bitten. Let fragrant fumigations be applied below under the pudendum; foul-smelling ones under the nostrils. Give drinks that cleanse the womb and drive it into place. Let her eat mercury plant, and drink milk afterward, as has been written concerning the side. The disease is not long-lasting. If the womb becomes scirrhous, the mouth of the womb becomes rough, and the menses are suppressed; whenever they come, they appear rough like sand. If one touches it with the finger, you would find the mouth of the womb rough like tufa stone, which keeps growing outward. 155 [5] When the condition is thus: grind cyclamen, and mix together salt and fig, and make up suppositories with honey, and after fumigation irrigate with cleansing agents. Let her eat mercury plant and boiled cabbage, and drink off the liquid also of leeks, and bathe in hot water. If the womb becomes scirrhous, the menses are darkened, and its mouth closes shut, and she does not conceive, and it is hard, and if you touch it, it seems there is something like a stone there, and the mouth is rough and multi-rooted and not smooth in appearance, and it does not admit the finger of the one examining it; and she is seized by fever with chilling all around, and tooth-grinding, and pain grips the womb and the lower belly and the flanks and the loins. 156 [10] She suffers these things if the menses, having become corrupted, putrefy; and sometimes also from childbirth and from cold, or from bad diaita (regimen / ordering of life), and otherwise. One must therefore give a purging drug to drink, and bathe in much hot water, and fumigate with water and oil. Whenever she has just been freshly bathed or freshly fumigated, insert the probe and open up the mouth, and similarly widen it with the finger, and apply softening suppositories as described, and give drinks to drink and treat in the same way. If the womb becomes hardened, the mouth of the womb becomes hard and has closed shut, and the menses do not occur but are scanter and worse, and fever and chilling seize her, and pain is driven into the lower belly and the lower back and the flanks. 157 [5] When she is in this condition: bathe with much warm water, and apply warm fomentations if pain is present, and fumigate the womb gently for a long time with water from wild cucumber; then let softening suppositories be applied. Do these things for three days. And if, on her own touching it, the mouth of the womb appears soft, pack it with raw-linen probes — the kind used for empyema patients — using three plugs: the first thin, the second somewhat thicker; and let the thickest be in size equal to the little finger, five fingers in length; anoint with goose-fat, apply after first fumigating with fragrant substances, and smear a softening suppository with as much natron as will coat it, so as not to wound — for it must not be pierced — and let it remain in place for two days. What comes away is like bark and thick skin. After a pause of three days, apply cyclamen, and also that preparation with narcissus oil. But if these do not purge, taking careful note, apply more — for now the preparation with buprestis; let it remain in place through the day; and when it bites strongly, draw out the suppository, and wash the genitals with warm water, and have her sit in oil; on the following day, after bathing, melt deer-fat, work it into soft wool, and let her apply it. And if it seems to you that purging is still needed, after a pause of three days apply the preparation with narcissus oil; on the following day, netōpon; then again after a pause of three days, irrigate the womb with fragrant and fatty substances; on the following day apply pennyroyal for one day; on the day after that, fumigate with aromatics; let her eat sharp foods and sea-foods, or meats. During the monthly periods let her drink beaver-gland preparation, and while fasting and unwashed, undergoing fumigation and drinking the kykeōn, let her come to her husband. But if the mouth of the womb does not receive the seed but is barren and has closed shut, let a lead probe be applied, as has been described, after bathing three days in warm water; let her use softening preparations, lie on her back, sit over warm water, and, dipping wool into myron, apply it; and during the night place woollen or soft linen cloths beside the hips, so that the body is not left exposed. 158 [25] For soft suppositories: the richest myrrh, pitch, wax, and goose-fat; let the myrrh be one part and each of the other ingredients two parts; apply in wool; there should be two of them; after bathing, let the one be applied during the day, the other during the night, until the part is soft; and when it has been removed, rinse around with fragrant water. Or, having shelled fifteen berries — and let there be some Indian preparation as well, if it seems needed — grind them in the milk of a woman nursing a boy, and mix in deer marrow and all the other things that have been mentioned, and mix with a little honey; let the wool be soft and clean, and apply it during the day; but if you want to make it stronger, mix in a little myrrh. Excellent also: the yolk of an egg, goat-fat, honey, and rose oil — knead these together, warm them beside the fire, and collect what drips off with wool and apply it. Or take red seasoned goose-fat, rose myron — mix these together, soak wool in them and apply. Better still: goose oil, or sheep-fat, white wax, resin, netōpon, rose oil — melt and mix all these together; after bathing let her apply them warm inside, toward the mouth of the womb. Or melt deer marrow and goose-fat with rose or iris oil and knead together; apply with very soft wool. When a woman's womb becomes hard and protrudes into the genitals, and the groins become hard, and there is burning heat in the genitals, everything tends to become cancerous. 159 [5] When she is in this condition: scrape the inside of a cucumber together with a honeycomb, pour over it a kotylē of water, and insert it into the rectum, and it purges. If the mouth of the womb becomes hard from dryness, and the neck is in an abnormal position, you will know by touching with the finger; and if they have turned upward toward the hip, apply nothing sharp; for if it ulcerates and then becomes inflamed, there is danger of the woman becoming altogether unable to bear children; apply those things that will not cause itching, by which she will be purged. 161 [5] When the womb is hard and hurts in this way, apply suppositories such as deer marrow, or goose-fat, or pig-fat, and iris myron with honey, and soften with egg yolk and white wax; as a plaster, cook barley or wheat flour with water and rue. If the womb closes shut, its mouths become hard and no longer receive the seed; rather, immediately, whenever she has lain with her husband, and if she moves her legs, it flows out; and pains grip the lower belly, the loins, and the groins; the monthly periods do not occur at all; and if they do occur, they are scanty, unhealthy, and without color. 162 [5] When she is in this condition, bathe with much warm water; after the bath give beaver-gland preparation together with the root of glycyside, which must be mixed in fragrant dark wine; let her regulate her food as a woman in childbed does; and when the monthly periods are apparent, hold back one day, and fumigate her the whole time, and give a purgative draught to drink — upward, if they are accustomed to it, downward if that seems needed — ass's milk or whey; and fumigate gently, and apply softening preparations to the womb on the following day, and cyclamen, and narcissus preparation. Take the inner flesh of small cucumbers, grate it, remove the seeds, dripping in the milk of a woman nursing a boy, grind it, mixing in unmixed myrrh, the finest honey, and white Egyptian oil, and make it not liquid but rather dry; spread this on clean soft wool, dip it in white Egyptian oil, and after bathing let her apply it; let her wear shoes and be covered when she is being purged. When it seems to you that it has gone far enough, stop; if not, apply another afresh; after this, wrap soft wool around it, make it round, dip it in netōpon, and apply for one day; on the following day, rose oil in wool; then again, melt deer-fat and apply it in wool. Let her always bathe in warm water before the applications, and be fumigated gently with fragrant substances for as long as possible; then, after a pause of one day, irrigate — if she is phlegmatic, with the preparation containing the berry; if she is bilious, with that made from scammony; follow these irrigations in both cases with a further rinsing; on the following day with narcissus preparation in sweet wine; if narcissus preparation is not available, use flower-oil or the finest iris oil; let the oil be one-third part to the wine; then, after a pause of two days, let her apply the preparation with pennyroyal for one day. If the monthly periods come, let her drink beaver-gland preparation fasting for three days in fragrant white wine; when the monthly flow ceases and it is stable, let her bathe and, rinsing with cold water, drink kykeōn without salt, and touch no grain; let her sleep with her husband for two or three days. For as long as she is being purged: boil the mercury-plant in water; when cooked, squeeze it out. Pound garlic, cumin, and salt together; stir oil into this mixture; add a little of the broth and bring to a boil. Eat this condiment before meals; take as much boiled and roasted garlic as possible; and if the mercury-plant is not very tender, one should boil cabbage together with it, and season it, and make it palatable; and if she conceives, she recovers, if everything proceeds in order for her. But if the mouth of the womb closes shut, it becomes as hard as a wild fig tree; and if you touch it with a finger, you will see it hard and contracted, and it does not admit the finger, and the monthly periods are hidden, and it does not receive the seed at this time, and pain grips the lower belly, the loins, and the flanks; and sometimes it rises upward and causes choking. 163 [10] When the condition is thus, give a purgative draught downward, bathe with much warm water, apply whatever softens the mouth, insert a probe-ointment and open it up, likewise with the finger, and irrigate. When it is soft, apply what purges blood, give the potions, and try whatever it will accept; let her eat cabbage and drink the broth. If the womb closes shut and the monthly periods do not appear, take wild gourd, Ethiopian cumin, natron, Theban salt, kidney-fat, flour, myrrh, and resin; boil all together and mix smooth, form a suppository, and apply it. 165 [5] If the womb becomes clotted, its mouth becomes as if full of bitter-vetches, and if you touch it you will see it thus, and the monthly periods do not come, nor does the seed remain. While the condition is thus, peel the bark from cyclamen, and grind it together with garlic, salt, fig, and a little honey, and mix, and form a suppository, and apply it to the mouth of the womb; and also apply other suppositories, both those that are sharp and those by which blood is purged, and of the potions those that purge the womb. If the womb opens abnormally, the monthly flow comes more abundantly, viscous and frequent, the seed does not remain, the mouth stands open and cannot retain the seed, fever and shivering take hold, and pain in the lower belly and the loins. 166 [5] The disease arises from a bloody flux, and it also occurs when the monthly periods having stopped suddenly break loose again. The diaita has indeed been stated before. One must treat with suppositories — at first with purging ones together with softening ones, then with mildly astringent ones — and with sponges fumigate the parts below the navel with water of myrtle, or boil in it bramble, or olive leaves, or rose, or vine-blossom, or vine. If the mouth of the womb opens wider than is natural during the monthly periods, the monthly flow comes more abundant and worse in all respects, more watery, and over a longer time, and the seed does not take hold, nor remain, but passes out again; and if it does remain, you will find the mouth twisted about, and weakness grips her from the monthly flow, and she is light and without tone and moves forward, and the extremities become slack, there is a mild fever, shivering, and pain grips the lower belly, the flanks, and the loins. 167 [5] This happens especially if something corrupted within her putrefies and congeals; some suffer it also from childbirths, others otherwise. When, then, the condition is thus, one must give a purgative draught, and the crisis will come sooner; and if pain is present, apply warm fomentations, and bathe with cold water, and irrigate at intervals, and give the potions whichever she will accept most readily, and fumigate below with whatever dries, and let her eat octopus and mercury-plant. But if the womb has not closed as it should, let her sit in water in which myrtle has been boiled, or mastic, or vine, or olive leaves, or rose. The diaita is as was described for the red flux; and the best help for her is thirst, frequent vomiting, and abstinence from bathing. When the womb has opened more than is necessary and has not closed, it needs purging, irrigation, and fumigation. If the womb becomes smooth, the monthly flow comes more abundant and worse, more watery and frequent, and the seed does not remain but passes out again, and on touching the mouth with your finger you will see it smooth, and weakness takes hold of her from the monthly flow, and fever and shivering grip her, and pain into the lower belly, the loins, and the flanks — especially when something corrupted within her putrefies, and from childbirth, and otherwise. 168 [10] When the condition is thus, one must treat wherever the pain is, as has been written in the preceding cases. If the womb becomes inflamed, the monthly periods are turned back, and the neck contracts, and there is a sharp fever affecting the mind, and the discharge appears scanty and unhealthy, and whenever she is fasting vomiting comes upon her; and when she eats something she vomits those things; and pain grips the lower belly and the loins, and she grows cold, and there is chilling of the whole body; the belly is at one time hard, at another soft, and it burns and swells and she seems to be with child; and sometimes the fullness of the belly seems hollow, and the belly fills with water, and the navel protrudes, and the mouth of the stomach is wasted, and the monthly periods suddenly appeared dripping, and scanty and unhealthy, and she becomes thin at the collarbones and the neck, and the feet swell, and the soles especially. 169 [5] When she is in this condition: give a purgative draught downward, and fumigate the womb with fragrant substances as fully as possible, during the days with lead probes, and bathe with warm water that does not burn before the application; and after the application irrigate the womb; boil two measures of knestrion in a kotylē of water, pour off the water, and irrigate it, having mixed in a kotylē of honey and narcissus or flower oil; after these things pause three days, then irrigate with the preparation containing vinegar, and before meals eat mercury-plant boiled with some wine as one eats cabbage, and drink the broth. If it persists, give purgative drugs by which water purges the womb. Let her eat bread and boiled tender vegetables, seafoods rather than meats, or boiled tender trotters, and take exercise as much as possible both before and after meals, and bathe as little as possible in cold water, and keep away from all sweet and fatty things; and in the intervals between purgings let her drink maidenhair-fern in diluted vinegar, fasting. The disease is deadly, and few can escape it, unless they are with child. Inflammation of the womb: the monthly periods are turned back, and when she has not eaten she vomits; when she has eaten, pain grips the lower belly and the loins, and the whole belly becomes at one time harder, at another soft, and does not settle; the belly becomes large and is not purged, and she seems to be pregnant, and suffers all the things that pregnant women suffer; and if you touch the belly, you would know the swelling to be light as a bladder; and when it seems to be the hour of delivery, the womb collapses, and the monthly periods are scanty and worse. 170 [15] This woman must be given a purgative draught downward, and purging suppositories applied; once purged she recovers. If the womb is inflamed it is tender to the touch; but if some part is mortifying and growing worse, she has a sharp and high fever and severe shivering; the parts around the genitals burn extraordinarily and bite and throb, and if anyone should touch with a finger, she becomes worse again and it itches; and she has pain in the head and at the crown, and dimness of vision, and sweat at the forehead, and the extremities grow cold and tremble, and torpor takes hold now and then, and she is unwilling to hear; nor does the womb function; great inability to eat, and the stomach does not readily retain nourishment, nor does the belly; and she cries out, and starts up, and has pain in the lower belly and the groins and the loins and the lateral regions, and they die quickly; and if the pains storm upon her, fumigate with warm sponges pressed out of water or oil; and for soft suppositories, apply deer marrow and goose-fat and white wax and egg yolk, or a pitch-based wax-salve with resin; purge with ass's milk or goat's milk, or broth of a bird; let her not drink wine, and let her drink barley-gruel broth. 172 [5] For injection into the womb against pain: if the pain alone is urgent and violent, there is a mist in the womb, and the pneuma does not go out but stays there — this is bad; one must therefore treat thus: grind together the fruit of wild orach and beets until smooth, warm them, and pour into the womb. Remedy for stopping pain of the womb: mix the finest wine equal with equal, three Attic half-kotylai, one-third of fennel root and fruit, and half a kotylē of rose oil; cast these into a new hedgehog-flask and pour in the wine, then fumigate. Also apply squill, so long as the mouth is soft and wrinkled. And whenever during purging blisters blaze up around the mouth of the womb, treat thus: smear ox-flesh with pickerel-fat or goose-fat and dill — all ground smooth — and insert the flesh into the genitals. 174 [10] If erysipelas takes the womb, the feet, breasts, and body swell, and weariness grips her, and orthopnoea develops, and she has pain in the flanks, the lower belly, the chest, and the head; shaking takes hold, and numbness in the hands and the groins, and she trembles at the backs of the knees; sometimes at the backs of the knees livid marks appear; and she is lightened for a short time; and the complexion — and especially the breasts — swell in sympathy; but she does not have very severe pain, and fever and shivering take hold, and the face becomes red, and there is strong thirst, and the moisture of the skin dries up. If these things befall a woman with child, she dies and will not be able to escape. If erysipelas arises in the womb, very watery swellings develop beginning from the feet, extending to all the legs and to the loins. 174bis [5] As the time becomes longer, the chest also is affected, and swells, and the whole body grows cold, and a high fever takes hold, and shivering comes on, and rapid pneuma, and fainting, and weakness, and pain throughout the whole body; she is despondent and her mind wanders, and the affliction ascends from the lower belly into the loins and into the back and the hypochondria and the chest and the neck and the head and the stomach, and she thinks she will die; and when the pain is released, numbness takes hold of the loins and the groins and the legs, and the parts at the backs of the knees become livid, and for a short time she seems better; then she suffers again, and the skin is covered with blisters, and the face takes on visible and ravaging redness, and the throat is dry, and the tongue rough. If this disease should seize a woman with child, it kills her. If not, treatment must be applied: give ass's milk to drink and purge; but if it does not resolve thus, cool the belly with gentle cold applications, and soft suppositories, and purge lightly by degrees, and induce vomiting; it is good to take boiled elder leaves with marjoram, or thyme, or rue; and if the fever lets up, give wine and sweet foods. Few recover. Dropsy arises in the womb: the monthly flow comes nauseating and watery, not very blood-like; the womb and veins and everything adjacent swell; she does not conceive; then she is choked; and the breasts drip; the lower belly is hard and swells, and the whole surrounding area, and she has pain if anyone touches it; fever and teeth-grinding grip her, and urgent pain in the flanks and the loins, and she has disturbing dreams and grows worse. 175 [15] This woman must be bathed in warm water and warmed, given a purgative draught, and fumigated with gentle fumigations; let three obols' weight of cyclamen be applied wrapped in fine cloth, and steep cypress juice in water, and grind cantharides and apply for a short time — and they act over a longer period. A suppository: cumin a shell-measure in amount, white grape-raisin. Another: nettle fruit, arum root — apply whichever of these you like, in moderate quantity. Once you have purged, remove it and rinse the genitals, and let her sleep with her husband; and if she carries the embryo through, she is completely purged and recovers. For dropsy of the womb: something slightly blood-tinged flows, ichor-like, and it purges, and it bites severely and ulcerates the genitals and surrounding parts like brine, and wherever it drips it ulcerates; the complexion is jaundice-colored; in other respects it purges in quantity, as in the other fluxes. 176 [10] The disease becomes slower and also otherwise deadly if the womb has ulcerated. Treat this one as the one gripped by white flux, give ass's milk to drink, make her lean, and treat with the drugs already described. Electuaries for dropsy: if water flows from the womb, sulphur and goose-fat — let her lick them. If wind is in the womb: flatulence passes out and gurgles; she is swollen all over; fever and weariness grip her. She starts up violently from the pain; she does not admit her husband; intercourse troubles her greatly; she cannot stand upright; it lies heavily within the womb upon her; headache; restlessness; inability to speak. If the pain presses on: she cries out; pain everywhere — loins, pubic area, and rectum; urine and the belly are retained; she is choked; she longs to die; the hypochondrium is stretched taut; the stomach bites; the mouth is bitter; she vomits sharp and unmixed fluids; belches frequently; and gets relief. But if not, she swells up, and if you touch it, it resists and hurts. 177 [5] The womb must be irrigated with honey-water, oxymel, and olive oil. Grind cumin, or anise, and linseed leaves, and bird dung with eggs, and inject in water. Let her use the suppositories that I shall write down, and the drinks. Sit her in warm olive oil, and throw in aromatics — rush-flower, or laurel in water, or sea-water. Best of all is to loosen the belly with soft enemas, or apply a suppository as for a child whose belly is to be loosened — unwashed wool with honey. If she is older, dip an onion in oil or honey and apply it; or bull's bile, or natron with honey, or a choinix of sour pomegranate with honey and barley meal. If a mola grows in the womb, held by thick seed, grind savory in vinegar and water and give this to drink in moist form, or the fruit of henbane ground fine, and irrigate with brine, and with plant-juice, and with vinegar; if needed, with water. Best of all is to inject honey-water with water of lentils, or of bitter vetches, or of violet-flower. 178 If the discharge is like that of pyriphlegertha (fire-burning flux), boil myrtle and wash with it; apply myrrh and nard-oil in wool. If wind is in the womb and causes biting pain, passing through this way and that it produces a burning sensation, and the womb swells with heat, and she is in pain, and she refuses her husband, and is greatly distressed by intercourse, and she is stretched tight, and the lower belly swells, and she cannot stand upright or straighten herself. 179 [10] When you find her thus, know that wind and seed are in the womb, and the seed has taken hold there — for this reason she is suffering. Take honey, wax, and linseed leaves, grind them fine along with bird fat, warm in fragrant wine, and pour into the womb with a syringe. Let her drink linseed leaves; or grind the fruit and wrap in wool toward the mouth of the womb. If this fails, use something more vigorous: lily and saffron and linseed leaves, bird fat ground fine, dissolved in woman's milk, absorbed using fine soft linen cloth, and bound up; let it be applied toward the mouth of the uterus. And if a fleshy fat growth is forming, apply a dissolving agent and thin it out moderately; for women thinned too much become loose in texture and miscarry. 181 [15] If the uterus does not accept but expels, and has no warmth in itself, a device must be constructed, a mechanism upon which she sits so that steam enters into the womb; around this device place garments in a circle. Fumigate below with cassia, cinnamon, myrrh — equal parts of each — kneaded in boiled wine and applied; let her bathe briefly, eat little. The following suppository also helps: soft myrrh with honey; let it be elongated like a pessary. Do all these things as often as possible, looking to her strength. Ground labruscum seeds mixed with myrrh are also of use. Boil honey and stir it together with the brands, and apply an amount like an Egyptian bean. Also bull's bile, and red sumac (rhodē) equal to the herb flea-bane (konyza) — which resembles curly parsley, grows nearest to the sea in sandy places, and has a hard-to-bear smell — mix with honey and wine and apply. Or bolbion — it is observed among grains of wheat, and especially Egyptian ones, pungent, resembling Ethiopian cumin — apply this along with garlic and natron at the same time; let her wash first. When a woman has pain in the head at the crown and the neck, and has vertigo before her eyes, and is fearful and gloomy, and her urine is dark and similarly through the womb, and she has nausea and low spirits, there is black bile (melaina kholē) in the womb. 182 [5] Let her be treated: grind year-old elder pith, bull's bile, flower of copper along with bakkaris, and make suppositories, and give a purgative drink, and wash her. Whenever a woman is bitten in the womb and is in pain and feels a gnawing, and passes yellow bile in her urine, and the womb gapes, and her eyes are jaundiced, know that bile is in the womb. 183 [5] Best therefore is to purge out the whole body and the womb itself with suppositories that draw bile. The uterus becomes chilled, and a feeling of heaviness seems to be settled in it, and the color is not bright, and the uterus has hardened. 184 [5] When things are thus, purge with whatever draws phlegm, and thin out, and cause frequent vomiting. When a woman has bad odor from the mouth and the gums are dark and in poor condition, burn separately a hare's head and three mice, removing the belly of two of the mice but not the liver or kidneys; grind marble or white stone in a stone mortar and sift it; then mix equal parts of each and rub the teeth. The places inside the mouth must also be rubbed; then rub with the most unwashed wool, and rinse with water. Dipping the unwashed wool in honey, let her rub the teeth and gums and the inner and outer parts. 185 [5] Grind anise, the fruit of dill, and two obols' weight of myrrh, dissolve in a half-kotyle of undiluted white wine; let her rinse with this and hold it in the mouth for a long time, doing this frequently, and gargle on an empty stomach and after food. Most excellent is eating little, and the very best things should be taken in. This preparation cleanses the teeth and makes them fragrant; it is called the Indian preparation. When a woman's breast develops hair, boil the fruit of stoibē or bramble in water and olive oil, and plaster the breasts, and lay beet leaves over them; then stitch from a rag a kind of cap, measuring it to the size the breast will require, and so place the nipple inside. If it suppurates, it is better to cut it, and dress it with unwashed wool as a plug, and apply the same over it; afterward untie it, mix boiled lentils with barley-groats, and plaster. 187 [5] When pinworms arise for a woman in the genitals or in the anus, mix the fruit or leaves of chaste-tree, and add ox bile in the amount of one obol; knead in cedar oil and take up in the most fleece-rich unwashed wool; insert it every other day, night and day, and on the following day remove it and wash in warm water; let her eat garlic, both boiled and raw, and the pinworms come out and die. Brine must be used as an enema. Bull's liver brightens the face: grind it with olive oil and anoint in undiluted wine. Bile of the green-coloured creature destroys lice. But also the chymos (juice) of barley-water similarly brightens the face, and the white of an egg, and ground meal of lupine and bitter vetch, and plaster with fig; also root and seed of cabbage — these also remove lentigo spots; and halcyon-stone; and if dust distresses the face, apply a soft wax salve made with rose-oil, and pour on cold water. 188 [5] To smooth out wrinkles: grind lead ore in a stone mortar, adding monthly water, and form small discs; when they have dried, dissolve in olive oil and anoint the wrinkle-bearing face. If the hair is falling out, grind ladanum with rose-oil or flower-scent oil and anoint with wine; or smectris earth with wine, or rose-oil, or juice of unripe grapes, or acacia. If baldness sets in, plaster with cumin, or dove dung, or ground radish, or ground onion, or beet, or nettle. 190 [5] What are called liver spots (ephelides) are removed by: vetch-meal, chymos (juice) of beet, white of egg, barley-water; or dried root of wild cucumber ground with wine-lees and anointed; or fig-leaves applied. Rub with ground sesame, or with bitter almonds; nettle seed, garlic skin bound on, lepidion. All lichens are removed by: vinegar, manna, pumice-stone, sulfur with vinegar, wild cress burned to ash, viper's shed skin, and root of wild dock. Grind with wine-rich vinegar; blistering occurs; also use silver foam (lithargyros). 192 [35] A drink good for red flux: burn deer horn, mix in double the amount of raw-ground barley, and let her drink it sprinkled onto Pramnian wine, and it stops. Another similar drink: grind maidenhair root, parch chickpeas and make a paste, give in honey as a drink. Or a quarter-kotyle of fine wheat meal, half as much white gum, a third part manna, and a little rush-seed, or pine, or cypress, dissolved in water — give to drink twice a day. Or burn deer horn, grind it with raw-ground barley and five cedar-berries; dark astringent wine is mixed with these. Or roast a sweet pomegranate and drink the chymos (juice) with dark wine. Or two to three fruits of cypress, and dark myrtle-berries both together and on their own, taking account of the woman's bodily strength, and let the drink be with wine. Or grind one obol of castor and one obol of myrrh in astringent dark wine and give to drink. A drink for flux and every disease that arises from the uterus: give the fruit of glykysis, the roots of sumac, Ethiopian cumin, and black-cumin in white wine. Or scrape fennel-giant (narthex), about an oxybaphon's worth, and leek chymos (juice), in diluted white wine — this also stops blood flowing from the nose. Or boil pomegranate rind in dark wine, peel it, grind the interior in dark wine with barley-flour and drink. Or parch linseed or hedge-mustard seed, and green olive leaves, and black root, and large poppy; grind all these together and give to drink in diluted wine. Or ass rennet and root of sweet pomegranate rind and gall-nut in equal parts of all, and drink the chymos (juice) of sweet pomegranate with wine. Or dock fruit together with the outer paring of gall-nut; grind both of these and drink in wine, and afterward a kykeon. If blood flows copiously from the uterus, chaste-tree leaves with dark wine; astringent things mixed with dark wine stop the flux. For flux and pain: drink the root of false-barley in dark wine; if the flux is greater, grind terebinth fruit, dissolve it in wine and water, and drink. If flux occurs, suffocate river crabs in wine and give that wine to drink with water. If the flux still continues, parch and grind white willow and give in wine, or leek chymos (juice). If the flux comes down heavily, burn a mule's hoof, grind it fine and give with wine. If the flux becomes prolonged, a burned sponge helps; grind the sponge fine and give with fragrant wine. A poultice for flux: garlic, purslane, celery, shavings of lotus-wood, and cedar shavings — mix them fine all together, dissolve in honey-water, and make a poultice. 193 [20] Or mix bramble leaves, buckthorn, and olive fine together, dissolve in honey-water, and plaster with barley-meal. Or plaster with elder and myrtle leaves. Or lotus-wood shavings and mulberry leaves and sumac with dried grape. Hot applications (pyriesies) for flux: parch darnel-flour, boil in concentrated sharp oxymel, and apply as a fomentation soaked into linen cloth. Or parch lentils, hull them, make a coarser flour, boil in water, and plaster similarly; or bitter vetches the same way. Sage is also good; or boil barley straw in a decoction of sage and St. John's wort and plaster. Boil lotus shavings and cypress in the soaking-water of dried grape, apply as a fomentation smeared into linen cloth. Or olive leaves, or ivy, or myrtle — boil barley straw in a decoction of these. Or boil wheat bran together with aromatic water. Or boil wheat bran in the soaking-water of dried grape, or boil the fruit or roots of white stock-flower, and throw wheat bran into that water; or after doing this with the decoction of wheat bran, wrapping it in warm wool, let her be given a hot application; or likewise in the decoction of thyme the same way. Apply also with warm sponges and soft wool-packs, if she is in sharp pain, and with earthenware vessels filled with water; or in bladders with warm olive oil. Enemas for flux: boil myrtle leaves, laurel, and ivy in water; irrigate with this lukewarm. 194 [5] Or boil elder leaves and rush in water, pour off, and irrigate while just warm. Or boil vine-blossom, cyperus, and dried grape in honey-water and irrigate. Or in water of fenugreek, or a decoction of bramble, or green olive, or cypress, or thyme, or pomegranate, or white stock root, or rush — just warm; or the preparation made with butter and resin and goose oil, or the one made with marrow and pig fat. Fumigations below for flux: fumigate below with parched barley on coals, or deer horn with unripe olives, or red sumac, and parched barley-meal with oil and double the wine. Or barley straw and dung similarly, or lotus shavings, or sumac, or cypress with astringent dark wine — fumigate dry; or galbanum, or manna, or resin soaked in wine; or goat horn and gall-nut — and the flux is stopped. 195 [20] Other fumigations: dig a pit, and parch about two Attic choinix-measures of grape-pips; spreading the ash over the pit, sprinkle fragrant wine over it; let her sit astride it, spreading her thighs, and receive the fumigation. Or what is called dried goat-wool grease (oisypē) — pound it and parch with barley bran, knead with olive oil, and fumigate. Or put germander on coals, laying barley straw underneath, or cypress shavings, moistening with rose-oil, and fumigate. Or hemlock, or myrrh, or frankincense — pouring oil over them, fumigate. Or asphalt and barley straw similarly. Or pour cedar root in rose oil and fumigate. Or reed, rush, cyperus, celery seed, anise — pour rose oil over them and fumigate. Similarly put resin and cinnamon and myrrh below along with bramble leaves, or fragrant-smelling rose petals with some saffron and styrax; grind all these together and fumigate with one Attic obol's weight on vine-ash or on formed cattle-dung shaped like a sauce-dish; let the fire be of vine-twigs; already beforehand apply something so that there is no smell of burning, for if there is a smell of burning it is better not to fumigate. Suppositories for red flux: myrrh and bolbion ground with honey — this is the best suppository. 196 [15] Or boil roses in water, grind them fine in rose-oil, wrap in wool, and apply. Or boil the flower of lotus in water, then grind in rose-oil, and bring it in wool to the mouth of the uterus. Or cyperus, iris, and anise in equal parts each in rose-oil, ground fine, in wool — most effectively toward the inner mouth. Or leaves of dark myrtle in white wine, mix in pine bark, and do likewise. Or grind cypress fruit and frankincense — equal parts of each — together in rose-oil, and apply in wool. If the flux needs to be dried up, boil calamint in dark wine, dip cloth into it, and apply. Or boil henbane leaves and hemlock together. Similarly mix leeks, mallow, wax, and goose fat, then apply lukewarm to the genitals. Or grind undiluted wine with resin and boiled pomegranate skin, and apply likewise. Or grind safflower with wine and apply. Or lotus shavings likewise. Or sumac leaves or red sumac, mixed with boiled-down honey, apply. If it does not stop, make a suppository in wool of sousino, or the herb blite, which is like a tongue in shape. Suppository and injection for watery flux: if water flows from a woman's genitals, take dry resin and tamarisk leaves and linseed fruit, grind in wine, mix in bird fat, and pour into the genitals with a syringe. 197 [5] Flour of tortoises as pure as possible, or fine starch, in wool — apply toward the inner mouth. Another injection similarly: when water flows from the genitals, grind tamarisk leaves and frankincense fruit in goose fat along with resin, and inject into the genitals with a syringe. If the lower belly is in pain from a watery flux, grind linseed in honey and plaster the lower belly well. 199 [5] If the flux is bloody, or white, or of whatever kind: take sulfur and pure extract of mandrake in wool and apply, and let her sleep on her back and remain without moving. Or grind dry pomegranate rinds in Pramnian wine and give to drink. A drink for white flux: give the seed of white ivy and pine bark in astringent wine. Or burn one part deer horn, and two parts raw-ground barley and five cedar-berries, grind in water, and drink. When a woman is being suffocated by the uterus: let her drink castor and flea-bane (konyza) separately and together in wine. 200 [5] Or asphalt in the amount of three obols, or as much seal fat as one can take on a finger. Give half a drink's worth of root of glykysis in fragrant wine to drink. When the uterus is suffocating and she is also coughing, mix one obol of realgar, an equal amount of unburned sulfur, and three or four cleaned bitter almonds, and give in fragrant wine. If the uterus is pressing up, grind barley fine with its straw along with deer horn, moisten with oil, and fumigate below. When it is up high and the heart and the stomach are being pressed and they remain so, give myrrh, or resin, or nard-oil, or castor, or juice of silphion to drink. When the uterus is causing suffocation — the breath (pneuma) rushing in surges upward, heaviness present, the mind struck down, voicelessness, extreme chilling, the breath (pneuma) stumbling, the eyes dimmed — shave the head as quickly as possible and push it away with a band, and roll it up above the navel. Give castor and flea-bane (konyza) and rue-water, Ethiopian cumin, radish seed, sulfur, myrrh. To the nostrils bring ill-smelling things, and fragrant things to the uterus. If she can bear it, mix the white inner part of a grain with honey and smear the nose. 201 [35] Or ground mastic, so that it causes a stinging sensation. When there is pain and suffocation, give mallow root, or oxymel, or fennel bark, and rock-samphire in water to drink; best of all is to belch and sit up; or make sneezing with hellebore and hold it to the nostrils. If they seem to be settling beneath the diaphragm — she is suddenly voiceless, the hypochondria are hard, she is suffocated, she clamps her teeth, and she does not respond when called — then fumigate below the nostrils, burning wool, throwing asphalt onto the fire and castor and sulfur and pitch; anoint the groin and thighs from within with the most fragrant oil; or let her drink a mix of black sea-stars and cabbage in fragrant wine. Or grind three obols of myrrh, a little coriander, resin, root of glykysis, Ethiopian cumin — grind these in white wine, dissolve in water or honey-water, and drink lukewarm. Penkedan, aristolokhia, tears of onion, all-heal — also given lukewarm in wine or water are of help. The root of the tick-plant drunk, or Ethiopian cumin, or celery, or fennel seed and anise, pepper or myrrh, and juice of poppy drunk — these bring the uterus back to its place. If the heart is being suffocated by the uterus, it is pressed up, and she has difficulty breathing and gasps: drink the fruit of chaste-tree and glykysis in wine, or southernwood, and all-heal, and ammoniac gum, or rue, or sleep-inducing poppy-juice. If again she is in a similar state, grind black-cumin fine, moisten with honey, form it like a pessary, and apply at the feather end; or apply philistion likewise; or telephium, or anemone leaves ground up — put them in a rag and mix in a little myrrh. If the uterus has lodged itself at the loins and the suffocation does not reach the head, let her eat boiled octopus, and drink as much undiluted dark fragrant wine as possible. When turning toward the viscera it causes suffocation, let her drink cedar wine and Ethiopian cumin, and bathe in warm water, and be given fragrant hot applications. If the uterus is inflated with wind, all the spices that are put into oil of roses, and laurel, and myrtle, and sage, and shavings of cedar and cypress — pound and sift these fine, sprinkle onto fragrant wine, and pour rose-oil over it. 203 [45] When the womb has shifted and is pressing down, fumigate below using barley with its bran, and cornelian cherry, and deer horn soaked in wine. When it is lodging and causing suffocation, light a lamp-wick and extinguish it beneath the nostrils, so that smoke and soot are drawn in; and let pitch, castorion, peucedanum, and myrrh be mixed with perfumed oil, bound on with wool, and applied as a pessary; and give resin dissolved in oil to drink. If the suffocation is very severe, give as a drink a coastal tortoise weighing about three obols, ground up in white wine, to drink a kotyle in a few cyaths; or fill a lamp with oil, light it, and when it is extinguished bring it to the nostrils; or foul-smelling mud in the same way; or burnt wool; or a little bitumen ground in white wine, let her drink it; or give a shell-measure of hedge-mustard and castorion in white wine to drink, and wash her. If she is coughing, mix one obol of sandarach, two obols of unburned sulfur, bitter almonds after cleaning them, and one obol of castorion with fragrant wine, and give to drink. If the womb is causing suffocation and the suffocation reaches the heart, and the mouth is clamped shut, give hot vinegar to sip; open the mouth with a small peg or a shuttle; or similarly odorless wine and with oxymel. If the suffocation is very severe and she is speechless, grind onion in lukewarm wine, drip it into the nostrils, and rouse her. If they rise as far as the liver and she is suffocated, she becomes speechless, sees nothing, clenches her teeth, becomes rigid, thinks nothing, breathes rapidly, and hears nothing: take hold of her under the hypochondria with the hands and shake her frequently; pry open her teeth with a peg and pour in warm undiluted wine, if nothing prevents it, and she generally recovers immediately. If they press into the groin and bear down, fumigate below using goat's dung and hare's fur soaked in seal oil; or dry the fruit or leaves of cytisus, or mix the bark and oak leaves and resin, moisten with oil, and fumigate. Or pound the hide of the pine seal smooth, mix sponge and sea-moss pounded smooth with seal oil, and fumigate. Fumigate with goat's dung, seal's lung, and cedar sawdust. Or cow-dung, or scrapings of ox horn and bitumen, or the fruit of Egyptian acacia and cedar sawdust and dry myrtle leaves, moistened with soft perfumed oil, fumigate; cast many aromatics into the perfumed oil. Or pound grape-seeds smooth, mix cedar-pitch and pine resin together, moisten with boiled sweet wine, and fumigate. Fomentations to make them retreat: take pounded cow-dung and half as much vinegar, and similarly bitter-vetch of sea-water or fresh water, foment the nostrils; foment gently, and give lentil-broth to drink, and make her vomit, and give flour-gruel and then wine to sip; the next day let a suppository be taken by mouth; and as a diuretic, raisins and chickpeas — pound two measures of the best raisins, pour a chous over them, boil, then pour off and set out in the open air, and drink the next day; and for the remainder, give sage, linseed, and barley-flour twice a day in diluted wine, four kotylai. Half a kotyle of oil and a handful of elder leaves: boil these and foment with the hot liquid, or with hot potsherds, have her sit on a stool and wrap her in garments. Or boil elder leaves with myrtle and barley husks; and if she can bear it, mix vinegar, oil, honey, water, blend and combine them, bring to a strong boil, and pour into a bladder; or put pine bark and pomegranate leaves into water and boil down strongly; also put barley husks into the water, boil, pour on oil; or cedar sawdust and cypress, pour water and oil over, boil thoroughly, and foment with aromatics; pour in perfumed oil, and add gall-nut and buckthorn bark and wheat flour with water. 204 [10] If they protrude outward and the sinews called orchoi — supportive structures of the womb — slacken, boil myrtle berries, cedar sawdust, bramble and olive leaves together and foment lukewarm; or with wine together with these and foul-smelling things, likewise; and smear the protruding parts with the white of an egg; when they are cold and livid, use hot water. Softening applications for the womb: sheep's fat, egg-yolk, honey, rose oil — mix these with flour, warm gently over a slow fire, take up what drips on wool, work it soft, and apply; or red seasoned fat, goose grease, rose oil — melt together and work into wool, apply; goose grease or apple-suet, white wax, nētopon, rose oil — make these into as fine a blend as possible, work thin rags into it, and let her apply them warm to the mouth of the womb after bathing; or melt deer marrow and fat in rose oil, work soft wool into it, and let her apply. 205 [45] Soft suppositories that bring away water and mucus and membrane-tissue, and do not ulcerate: grind the finest myrrh, coarse salt, and seasoned pitch smooth and apply. Another suppository: shell thirty grains of the Indian spice the Persians call pepper, and within it there is the round one they call myrtidanon; grind together with woman's milk and dissolve with honey; then work the preparation into soft clean wool wound round a feather, apply, and leave in for the day; if you wish to make it stronger, mix in a little myrrh, about a third part, and soft clean wool, either fully washed or half-washed. It draws from the womb and softens the mouth: narcissus, cumin, myrrh, frankincense, wormwood, galingale — these by themselves or with rose oil or white oil, and let her apply after bathing. Capable of drawing out blood-tinged ichor: mix myrrh with these — salt, cumin, bull's bile, honey — apply in wool; and cumin leaves in the same proportions in wine; or mix silphium-juice with fig and make a suppository and apply; the white root with honey does the same, and afterward anoint with rose oil; effective also is a garlic clove with red natron and fat fig in equal parts, mixing also a small gall-nut, make a suppository, dip it in one of the liquids, apply, and afterward after bathing let her keep deer fat in wool. All blood-tinged preparations can draw more than the foregoing and soften: pepper, elatērion — mix also woman's milk, and grind with these, and honey and white fat or deer fat. Rougher but drawing all manner of things vigorously: fat of fig, two doses of elatērion, red natron equal in quantity to the elatērion, a little honey — make into a suppository in a rag or in wool. Another: nētopon, bull's bile, natron, cyclamen, gall-nut — grind with honey; afterward after bathing let her keep fat or pennyroyal; and apply bull's bile, myrrh, honey, and after bathing rose oil; or smear bull's bile ground up onto a feather, dip it in Egyptian grease, and apply; or cyclamen the size of an astragalos with copper-flower, or grind the head of an anemone with flour, smear around a feather, or dip in white wool. Draws everything: take the seed of the long gourd's inner flesh with milk, and myrrh, with these pure honey, some Egyptian oil, work up in soft wool; or dry the inner flesh of the gourd, pour honey over it, grind it, and make a suppository; when she has bathed, let her apply fat; or three doses of elatērion in softening fat, egg-yolk, flour, honey, white wax — warm these together and sponge up what drips on wool, apply; or goose grease, white wax, resin, rose perfumed oil; or melt deer marrow or sheep's or goat's fat, egg-white, rose perfume, and make a suppository or take up in wool. 206 [5] Fomentations by which the womb is purged, if it is hardened: take the most pleasant wine diluted equal part with equal, about three Attic hēmichoai, and a quarter-measure of fennel root and seed, and a half-kotyle of rose oil, pour into a vessel of which the lid has a hole, pour the wine over, insert a reed and foment, and afterward apply the squill. If sudden pains come on like squalls and there is loss of consciousness: make lozenges about a drachm's weight of rose-leaves, cinnamon, pure myrrh, nētopon, and poppy-juice, place them on a fragment of a jar, and if it glows, use as a fumigation; or storax, in the amount they put into oil, to use as in the previous treatment; pound and sieve all those ingredients that are put into perfumed oils; throw onto the dung-cake also storax, and smear with nētopon, the finest rose oil, and white Egyptian oil; use this fumigation after the purgings. Or pound laurel and myrtle leaves and galingale fruit, work up with white Egyptian perfumed oil and nētopon, and fumigate over dung-cake. Helpful also are manna, cypress sawdust, and pounded galingale root — also weigh out sweet-smelling rush, and cress, and iris; mix all these, pour rose oil and nētopon over them, and use in a steaming of wheat bran. Or fumigate resin on a newly fired tile, adding castorion or some of the aromatics; moisten the head with rose oil, and into the ears myrtle oil or quince oil. Or boil white chickpeas and raisins and give to drink, and have her sit in hot water. Or finely scrape unripe white olives before they release oil, dry them, grind in fragrant wine, and give an Attic cup-measure. Or the bellies of blister-beetles, or maidenhair fern, and red Egyptian natron, and ferula root, and celery seed — give these; but if strangury takes hold, let her sit in water and drink sweet wine. For pain in the womb: dilute the most pleasant wine equal part with equal, about three Attic hēmichoai, and a third-measure of fennel roots and seed, and a half-kotyle of rose oil — put these into a new vessel, pour the wine over and foment, and apply the squill, until she says the mouth of the womb is soft and wrinkled and open; and if it is ulcerated and there are blisters, it is better to treat with goose-grease ointment with frankincense. For pain in the womb: peucedanum, aristolochia, all-heal — mix these together in sweet wine, warm and give to drink, and give white poppy-gruel to sip, and nettle seed. Another: a fumigating fomentation, if pain is present — rinds of sweet pomegranate, cedar sawdust, dry pounded olive leaves — these must be worked up with oil and thrown onto burning dung-cake; or galbanum, myrrh, frankincense, white Egyptian oil on vine-shoots. Another fomentation, the firmer kind using bitumen: Zakynthian bitumen, hare's fur, rue, dry coriander — grind all these, form into lozenges, and fumigate. Or pitch, sandarach — pound smooth, mix cypress sawdust, and wax with these, pour perfumed oil over, make into lozenges, and fumigate over fire. Or rasp goat's horn, stir in oil, and fumigate over fire. Or dig a pit, roast grape-seeds, throw the ash into the pit, moisten the grape-seeds with fragrant wine, and have her sit around it and receive the fumigation; let there be two parts of grape-seeds, and let these be as dry as possible. If the womb aches as far as the bladder, drink ground leek-seed with water; or give cyclamen root in white wine to drink on an empty stomach, let her bathe in hot water, drink the cooling drink on an empty stomach, and apply warm fomentations; or make smooth a garlic clove, roasted natron, and cumin, moisten with honey and apply, and let her bathe in hot water and drink the cooling drink on an empty stomach. 208 [5] A treatment for every disease of the womb: pound the split flax together with its very stalk finely; take about a drachm's worth, steep overnight in white wine as pleasant as possible, then strain, warm it, dipping in the softest possible wool, and alternately apply and remove. Helpful also are saffron, myrrh, Pontic nuts, pure wheat-flour — apply in goose fat and iris-perfumed oil. If very severe pain takes hold of one being purged with suppositories, take a cup-measure of myrrh, equal frankincense, nigella, galingale, seseli, anise, linseed, nētopon, honey, resin, goose fat, white vinegar, Egyptian perfumed oil — equal amounts of each — grind in sweet white wine, two kotylai, and inject with warm enemas. 209 [25] If pain is present after a purging, boil galingale, calamus, rush, and iris in dark wine and use. Another enema, if there is severe pain and strangury: leek-juice, elder-berry, seseli, anise, frankincense, myrrh, wine — extract the juices, mix, and inject. Or a cup-measure of myrrh, equal frankincense, equal nigella and galingale, seseli, anise, celery-seed, nētopon, honey, resin, goose fat, white vinegar, Egyptian perfumed oil — dissolve equal amounts of each in sweet white wine and inject. Or boil mercury-plant in water with myrrh, frankincense, nētopon, or boil St. John's wort in water and inject. Or boil linseed, anise, nigella, seseli, myrrh, cassia-berry in wine and inject. Another enema, if severe pain persists after a purging: boil elder-berry and laurel-berries in dark wine and inject, or boil elder in water, pour off the water, add sweet wine and inject; and if pain arises after the enema, boil the fragrant substances that are put into perfumed oils, pour off two kotylai of the water, mix in goose oil and rose oil, and inject lukewarm. In general, no enema should exceed two kotylai in volume. Or boil mercury-plant in water, mix in myrtle-juice, frankincense, equal nētopon, and inject lukewarm. If the womb aches, give cyclamen root in white wine to drink on an empty stomach, and bathe in hot water, and let her drink the cooling drink. If the genitals are inflamed: flush with warm perfumed oil with wine, and apply sweet clover, and apply ground glycyrhiza boiled in wine, and mix myrrh and resin together, dissolve in wine, dip a linen cloth in it, and apply. 210 [5] If strangury takes hold, foment and anoint the lower belly with fat, and have her sit in a decoction of rose, or bramble, or myrtle, or olive, or vine-tendrils, or juniper berries, or sage. If wind arises in the womb there is severe pain and the wind does not come out: let her apply cumin as a suppository; or pound sage and galingale, steep the whole night, strain in the morning, pour the clear liquid into a vessel, work wheat bran in white wine, and add about a kyathos of silphium-juice — boil the mixture and give it to sip warm, undercooked rather than fully prepared. 212 [5] If a polyp grows in the genitals, pain takes hold; for the pain, celery-seed is a remedy, and ivy, and sweet pomegranate ground in aged wine with fresh flesh to apply, and spread the leaves over; let it remain lying the whole night, and then removing it, flush with wine. CONCERNING THE INFERTILE. 213 (t) [45] What happens to women in respect of each of their afflictions has been said above; now I shall set out the reasons why some women are altogether infertile and do not give birth before they are healed. I say this is the cause: if the mouth of the womb has been turned completely away from the genitals, she does not conceive; for the womb does not receive the seed, but it comes out immediately. This also happens if the mouth of the womb has been turned only a little away from the genitals contrary to nature; and if the mouth of the womb is altogether clamped shut, neither in that case does it receive, nor if it is clamped shut just enough but more so than it should be. Each of these things I have mentioned is recognizable: if it is turned completely away or clamped shut, the menses do not come at all, or they come forcibly with disease, if the blood forces the womb to turn along a straight course; and even if the woman is purged, sometimes the mouth of the womb turns away from the genitals again; if it is turned only a little or is clamped shut just enough, the menses do pass, but they pass forcibly and in small quantities over many days. All these things become clear, if the condition is as I describe, to a woman who feels with her hands; and if any of these conditions is present, the woman, when cared for, becomes fertile; though sometimes it happens of itself. Why each of these things happens will be explained, and it has been explained in the treatise on female diseases. If the womb is smooth — and this happens in some women by nature, and if ulcers that have arisen leave large scars, and if it is smooth — the woman does not conceive; for the womb receives the seed, if there is no other cause, but does not retain it; rather, it lets the seed slip out. This is most clearly apparent on palpation and by asking whether she has ever had ulcers in the womb. The menses pass healthily in this disease; but such a woman is for the most part incurable. This too is a cause of not conceiving: if an ulcer has arisen in the womb from one of the afflictions mentioned and has not healed quickly but has become infected. For the ulcer persists for a long time, just like one in the ear, and the woman has a bad smell, and sometimes a foul-smelling ichor flows from her genitals, and as long as she has the ulcer she does not conceive; for the womb does not retain the seed. In this woman the menses pass healthily; it becomes clearest on palpation and by questioning about the things mentioned; when cared for she becomes fertile; but there is little hope. If something of the menses has remained behind in the womb without discharge, and, becoming warm and then cool again, is around the mouth or a little further in, neither in that case does she conceive; for this obstruction lying there does not allow the seed to travel where it must. If attended to from the beginning, she gets well and becomes fertile; but if time has elapsed, she remains infertile; the condition is clearest on palpation, for something hard comes to be there. If the womb gapes more than it should, neither in that case does she conceive; for the womb does not retain the seed; this too will be clear on palpation; and the menses come copiously and last only a few days; and this condition arises both by nature and from the diseases mentioned. If it is by nature, the disease is incurable; if not, it is not. If the menses do not flow in a healthy way, as is the case when the woman is not healthy, neither in that case does she conceive; for it does not congeal because the blood is diseased, but rather the blood coming down from the body, being diseased, disperses the seed; and the seed, having been dispersed, comes out in time — whether sooner or later — together with ichor. 213 (50) [80] This is apparent from the woman's body and her menses; for the menses will flow for her as I have described, whether she is of bilious constitution or of phlegmatic constitution or of dropsical constitution; if she is attended to promptly she becomes fertile; if not, she does not. If the menses do not flow at all in a woman from one of the afflictions mentioned, neither in that case does she conceive; for the veins, being full of blood, do not receive the seed, and by every means there must be some long-standing blood in the womb that prevents the seed from being nourished. If the menses flow in smaller quantity than they should, neither in that case does she conceive; the causes are those spoken of in the preceding disease; this too is clear on questioning. If the menses flow in small quantity by nature, she is incurable; if through some affliction of those mentioned, once attended to she will quickly become fertile. And if the menses flow in greater quantity than they should, neither in that case does she conceive; for the womb, once the blood is emptied out, does not retain the seed because of weakness; and even if it does retain it, a large quantity of blood suddenly descending onto the woman's womb smothers the seed. This too is clear from however much flows in the way of monthly flux; and if the woman by nature releases a large quantity of menses, she is infertile; if not by nature but through some one of the afflictions mentioned, once attended to she will be fertile. And if the mouth of the womb prolapses from the genitals, neither in that case does she conceive; for the mouth becomes hard and does not receive the seed, and it swells, and in this way she is altogether infertile; the cause of this condition is apparent. And if the menses do not flow along their proper course but rush downward toward the anus, neither in that case does she conceive; for it is clear that the mouth of the womb has been turned away from the genitals or is clamped shut; and if the mouth is turned toward the anus or is clamped shut, when attended to she becomes fertile; each condition is clear from questioning and answering; for if the menses are as I have described for any woman, it is clear that the disease is the cause for those women. Such are the things — and so many of them — because of which women do not give birth before they are healed, and because of which they become altogether infertile; so that one ought not to be surprised that there are women who do not give birth many times. Tests by which it is revealed whether a woman will conceive: if you wish to know whether a woman will conceive, give her butter and the milk of a woman nursing a boy to drink on an empty stomach, and if she belches, she will conceive; if not, she will not. 214 [10] Another test: apply a little nētopon wrapped in wool, then in the morning observe whether what has been applied gives off a smell through the mouth; if it does give off a smell, she will conceive; if not, no. Another test concerning the same matter: whichever woman, following the application of pessaries that are not very strong, is visited by pains reaching into the joints, and has grinding of the teeth, and is dizzy, and yawns — there is more hope that this woman will conceive than for one who suffers none of these things. Another test: take a clove of garlic, clean the head of it, scrape it, apply it to the womb, and observe the next day whether a smell comes through the mouth; if it does give off a smell, she will conceive; if not, no. If the woman wishes to know whether she will conceive, let her drink anise ground as finely as possible in water, and then sleep; and if itching seizes her around the navel, she will conceive; if not, no. If you cannot tell from other signs that a woman is pregnant, you will know from this: the eyes appear retracted and more sunken, and the whites of the eyes do not have the natural quality of whiteness, but appear more dusky. 215 [10] Women who are with child have dark pigmentation patches on the face, and when they begin to conceive they become averse to wine and have no appetite for food, and are full of heartburn, and drool. Grind red ochre and anise as finely as possible, then dissolve in water, give it, and let her sleep; and if cramping occurs for her around the navel, she is pregnant; if it does not occur, she is not pregnant. After all of these, she should drink flour and honey and marjoram in wine and oil. Women who are with child and have dark pigmentation patches on the face are carrying a female; those who remain of good color are for the most part carrying a male. If the nipples are turned upward, she carries a male; if downward, a female. 216 [5] Take milk, mix flour with it, make a small loaf, and bake it over a gentle fire; if it burns through, she carries a male; if it gapes open, a female. Wrap this same thing in leaves and bake it; if it congeals, she carries a male; if it spreads apart, a female. Treatments for testing conception and for childbearing — for a woman who needs them, both one who is childless and one who has already conceived but is not bearing children: when the neck of the womb is hard, whether entirely or at the tip, and has closed upon itself, and is not straight but turned toward one hip, or is bent toward the rectum, or has drawn itself upward, or the lip of the neck folds over on itself, or wherever it may be rough or hardened — and it becomes hard both from closing and from hardening — in these women the monthly discharge does not appear, or it appears much less and worse than it should, and it appears at longer intervals. 217 [45] The monthly discharge, when the body and womb are healthy, finds its way out in accordance with what is natural and right, and by reason of the warmth and moisture of the monthly flow the neck is not severely damaged; but the womb does not receive the seed on account of the harm — whatever it may be — that prevents it from the neck being in bad condition for receiving. This woman must be treated by fumigating the whole body and then given a purging drug, first cleansing the body, either upward and downward or downward only; and if you give the drug upward, do not fumigate before the purging but afterward; after fumigating, give a second drink downward. If the upper treatment does not seem to be needed, fumigate first, then give the drink downward. When the body seems to be in good condition, after this fumigate the womb itself by having her sit over fumigations frequently, in whatever seems beneficial; and throw into the fumigations shavings of cypress and crushed bay leaves, and wash with much hot water many times. Whenever she is freshly bathed and freshly fumigated, dilate the mouth of the womb with a tin probe, and straighten it at the same time if needed, or with a lead probe, beginning from a thin one, then a thicker one if she accepts it, until it seems to be in good condition. Dip the probe also in the softening preparation dissolved — whichever seems helpful — making it liquid. Make the probes hollow at the back, then fit them around long wooden rods, and use them in this way. During this time, let her boil in the sweetest possible white sweet wine the richest pine-torch wood, splitting it fine, and let her pound the fruit of celery, and the fruit of Ethiopian cumin, and finest frankincense; let her drink this fasting in whatever quantity seems moderate, for as many days as seems well. Let her eat young suckling puppies boiled tender, and octopus boiled in the sweetest wine, and let her drink the broth, and let her eat boiled cabbage and drink white wine afterward, and not be thirsty, and bathe twice a day; let her abstain from solid foods during this time. Afterward, if progress is made in the region of the neck and some discharge appears outside, let her continue to drink the drink for one or two days more, and cease using the probes, and try to cleanse the womb with medicinal pessaries. For the woman in whom the monthly discharge does not appear at all, or appears less and at longer intervals and in unhealthy form, although the neck is straight and soft and healthy and well-positioned, having discovered what disease the womb has — and if the body contributes something as well — having found the cause from which she does not conceive, when matters stand thus, carry out the treatment by applying what is needed, beginning from the stronger remedies when it seems to be the right moment, and ending with the gentler ones, until the womb seems to be in a well-purged state and the neck seems to be correctly settled and well-positioned. If no progress is made from the drug and the drink, even after she has been drinking for a reasonable time, do not stop this drink. When matters are in good order regarding the work of the probes, soften the mouth of the neck, and arrange things so that it will open out as a passage for the pessary, by means of fumigant drugs and softening preparations. 217 (50) [5] Whenever it seems the softening and fumigating are in good order, apply drugs and carry out a purging of the womb, until it seems to be in good condition, beginning from gentle preparations and moving to stronger ones, then ending again with gentle fragrant preparations; for most of the strong drugs ulcerate the neck and prevent it from being correctly settled and healthy and well-fitted for receiving the seed, and they make the womb dry. If a woman's womb seems to have been damaged with respect to conception by fat, one must thin her down and emaciate her as much as possible in addition to the other measures. The season of spring is the best for conceiving. The husband should not become drunk, nor drink white wine, but drink the strongest and most undiluted, and eat the strongest foods, and not take hot baths, and be strong, and be healthy, and abstain from foods that are not beneficial to the matter. 219 [10] Whenever the woman seems to be well-purged and the neck of the womb seems to be in good condition, let her bathe and wash her head, and apply no ointment. Then, having wrapped an odorless washed linen cloth around her hair, let her bind it with a washed hairnet that smells of nothing, placing the linen cloth underneath first. Then let her rest having applied galbanum against the neck, warmed by fire or sun and well-softened. Then in the morning, having loosened the hairnet and the cloth, let her allow someone to smell her head — and if it gives off a smell, she is in a good state of purging; if not, it gives off no smell. Let her do these things without food. If you apply the preparation to a woman who has never borne children, it never gives off a smell, whether she is being purged or otherwise; and if you apply it to a woman who is pregnant, she will not give off a smell either. But a woman who conceives easily and is fertile and is healthy — if you apply it without even purging her, she herself will give off a smell from the crown of her head, but at other times not. When you are satisfied that things are in good order, instruct her to go to her husband; and let the woman be without food, and the husband not drunk, but bathed in cold water and having taken a small suitable meal. 220 [25] And if the woman knows that she has received the seed, let her not go to her husband in the early period, but remain quiet. She will know this: if the husband says he has discharged, while the woman is unaware of it owing to dryness. But if the womb returns the seed on the same day, it will be moist, and if it becomes moist, let her come together with her husband again until she conceives. Another treatment: fumigate the whole body, give a drink, purge upward and downward, then after drinking asses' milk fumigate the womb through a tube — for two days with stale women's urine and throw in natron, and on the third day with ox urine; on the fourth and fifth days, grind fennel seed and elderberry leaves and bay and cypress shavings, pour water over these and boil them. After the fumigation it is necessary to bathe with much hot water, and immediately from the fumigation and into the night to apply seasoned fat. Then prepare a compound, mixing together drop-myrrh and butter and goose fat and deer marrow and resin and nētopon; mixing equal parts of each, melt them down, and apply in soft Milesian wool, as fine-fibered as possible. Then open up the womb with lead rods beaten out to eight fingers' length, five of them: let the first be thin, the second thicker, and the others each thicker than the one before; open it up for five days. Let her always apply after bathing, and let her be bound up from the loins so that the rods do not fall out, and let her push the lead rods always higher, and the last one as high as possible. When she has opened it up, apply a purgative preparation: grind five cantharid beetles and the sponge of a long gourd and myrrh; knead and mix these together with boiled honey, form into a suppository, wrap in wool except for the tip, then dip in the pleasantest-smelling ointment and apply. Use as a purgative also this: bull's bile, and roasted flower-of-copper and natron and myrrh, dissolved in a little honey; tie a thin linen cloth, and winding the cloth around the drug at the top, apply it. Use also blister beetle with the myrrh, and elaterion with the boiled honey, and the cantharid beetles together with the elaterion and the myrrh. 221 [10] When she has been purged, on the following day bathe her and irrigate the womb: grind Ethiopian cumin and black cumin and resin and oil and honey and sweet wine; mix these and warm gently and irrigate. When you have irrigated, raise her up and tell her to walk around so that the irrigation is shaken through. Apply saffron and myrrh and frankincense tied in a linen rag, dry, equal parts of each, blending in goose fat and smearing it around the rag; apply this for seven days. On the eighth day, fumigate with myrrh and bitumen and barley, mixed into a fragrant ointment, throwing it onto a gentle fire, and fumigate through a tube. After fumigating, on the next day grind a castoreum testicle, pouring white wine over it, and having smeared it on a probe and wrapped it in wool, apply it for the night. At dawn, when she has taken it out and has gently worked it, let her go to her husband, and having lain with him let her remain still. And if she does not conceive at the first attempt, apply this same preparation again and let her go to her husband. One must begin the drug treatment when the monthly periods have come; and when they are ending, let her sleep with the conception preparation applied. During the prior time, let not the woman approach the husband nor the husband approach the woman. Whenever a woman does not conceive who was accustomed previously to conceive, but the womb receives the husband's seed into itself, it is necessary that this woman passes thick urine; for sometimes pus forms in the womb, arising from abscesses. And because of this, when the husband's seed mingles, it does not take hold of the womb where the husband's seed needs to congeal; for the pus obscures it so that it does not adhere — for the pus is dead and putrefies the seed. It is therefore necessary to cleanse the pus from the womb and to reduce the abscess in the womb, so that it no longer prevents the seed from congealing and adhering; one must act quickly in cleansing, before the pus hardens in the womb. 222 [5] The womb must be irrigated as follows: boil mares' milk, strain it through the finest and cleanest strainer, and with this irrigate, having made a suitable irrigator. Let the tip of the irrigator be smooth, like a probe, of silver; and near it let the hole of the irrigator be pierced, leaving a little space. Let there be other perforations as well; let each be evenly spaced on either side from the flank of the irrigator, and not large but narrow. Let the closed end of the irrigator be solid, but all the rest hollow like a small tube. A bladder of a female pig must be tied on, after scraping and cleaning it very well. When you have attached it, pour the milk into the bladder, inserting a piece of fine linen cloth into the holes so that the milk does not run out. When you have filled the bladder, tie it off, and give it to the very woman you intend to irrigate; and she, having removed the stopper, should insert it into the womb — she herself will know where it is needed. Then she should press the bladder with her hand until all the pus flows out; this will be clear when the pus no longer comes out together with the milk, for it is evident that there is none remaining — at that point one must stop. And after this, when she has cooled down for a short while, take a naturally dried long gourd, bore through the base, and at the tip of the neck let it also be pierced; make this part similar to the rest, except for the tip, in the same manner as the irrigator. Its thickness should be a little less than a man's member. Place this in a vessel, filling the vessel with wine; and let the wine be flowery, as fragrant, as dry, and as old as possible. Then cast a translucent black stone into the wine. Then place a gourd-cup made of white bronze over it, and let the woman sit astride around the knob of the gourd, arranging her member as it should be; and let it project beyond the bronze cup and the outer gourd by two fingers' breadth. When a woman is unable to receive seed, it is absolutely necessary that a membrane has grown over the mouth of the womb. One must take verdigris and bull's bile and snake fat, mix these together, then take a piece of wool and soak it in the drug, and wrap it in a fine byssus linen cloth, smearing honey on the cloth, and make a pessary about the size of the largest olive; then apply it to the genitals for the whole night; and let her lie on her back. In the daytime let it be removed, and let her bathe with the most abundant hot water possible from myrtle. Then apply it again during the coming night; and after that let her come together with her husband. 224 [25] Another treatment: take a quantity of horehound leaves enough to fill the hand well, put them into an Attic vessel, and pour over them four Attic kotylai of drinking water; soak for nine days, then drink for another nine days fasting, after bathing, two kyathoi a day of the horehound preparation, mixing an equal amount of sweet white wine. When she has been drinking for three days, let her be fumigated with hemlock leaves thrown onto a fire, for nine days, and after the fumigation let her bathe, and immediately after drink these things. When she has been fumigated for three days, apply the horehound itself ground smooth every day for three days; also smooth-ground mercury plant in Attic honey, daily. Let there be soaked in a chous of white wine lees: horse-fennel and fennel root, and resin of the fattest pine-torch, and a quarter-measure of madder, and fennel seed, and many roots of vervain; let these be soaked for not fewer than nine days. Afterward let her drink, after bathing over her head, a kotylē a day of undiluted soaking liquid while in the bath, and after this let her lie down and warm herself, and apply the preparation. Here, every other day, after the drink, use the bile preparation daily for six days. When she is about to come to the treatment in a good state of purging, boil hyoscyamus leaves and roots in water and let her be fumigated with these as hot as possible for three days into the nights, and after bathing let her go to her husband. After this fumigation, also fumigate with a deer's genitals, and when you observe it has a dried and roasted appearance, scrape some of it into white wine that has been diluted, and give to drink for three days; and when she is in labor pains, give it to drink, for this is also a hastener of birth. Another treatment: boil bull's bile and apple-alum; burn a deer's horn and grind it smooth, mix together, and use as suppositories. 225 [5] Another therapeutic: boil cumin in dark wine, grind smooth, make into a suppository, and apply for the night. After this, burn the lees of white wine — clearly the finest part of the lees — when you have burned it, scrape it off with a feather, then tying it in a linen cloth apply it for the night; let her eat boiled leeks. After this, grind tragion and dissolve in honey and apply for the night. After that, grind the fruit of tragion smooth, dissolve in white wine, shaving pine-torch over it, and give to drink. After this, fumigate with marjoram every other day, and so let her go to her husband. Another treatment for a woman unable to bear children: if you wish to make a woman unable to bear children capable of bearing, you must examine her monthly discharge to see whether she is of bilious or phlegmatic character. You will know which of these she is more, by placing fine dry sand underneath when the monthly discharge occurs, and pouring some of the blood on it in the sun; and if she is bilious, the blood drying on the sand turns yellow-green; and if she is phlegmatic, it resembles mucus. 226 [5] Whichever of these it may be, purge the belly, either upward or downward as you think she needs. Then, leaving an interval of some days, cleanse the womb; and if the mouth of the womb is rather moist, apply sharp preparations so that, being bitten and inflamed, the mouth of the womb becomes firm. If a woman is not burning inside, and does not conceive because of the womb, and is unable to have intercourse with a man, but is drowsy and has no appetite, mix honey with wine and pour it into the genitals, and let her be fumigated with myrrh below; and apply suppositories into the rectum, mixing in goose fat, and pour within into the genitals; then also irrigate with oil mixed in equal amount with honey. 228 [10] If a woman's womb is wasted and its mouth is roughened and has closed, and her monthly discharge does not appear, and she does not conceive, but a mild fever takes hold of her, and pains fall upon her in the flanks and the lower belly — this disease arises most often when something within her is destroyed; it also arises from childbirth. This woman must be bathed with hot water and fumigated. When she has been bathed and fumigated, dilate the mouth of the womb with a probe, and let her apply, having ground myrrh and an equal amount of nētopon, or rose perfume in a rag; and apply a piece of lead shaped like a suppository by scraping, and anoint with ox bile; and one will recognize the barren ones within four days, and fumigate and administer drugs. If she has grown abnormally fat, she does not conceive; for the omentum, lying thick and abundant over the mouth of the womb, presses it down, and the womb does not receive the seed. 229 [5] This woman must be treated with a slimming drug given to drink downward, and a preparation applied to the womb that cleanses and produces wind. If the mouth of the womb or the neck becomes hard, one will know by touching with the finger, and also if they are turned toward the hip. 230 [55] When the condition is such, apply nothing sharp; for if the mouth of the womb becomes ulcerated and then becomes inflamed, there is altogether great danger of the woman becoming sterile. Instead, apply things that do not bite, by which phlegm is purged. When a woman's monthly discharge has come and passed, first purge the head, then administer hellebore, whether once or twice as needed. After this, perform a vapor-bath, constructing the vapor apparatus from the cupping vessel. When it has been prepared, pour seawater into the vessel, throw in leeks, fit the pipe of the cupping vessel on top, and smear the best possible clay around the joint so that no vapor escapes. Then pass the pipe through the woven seat of the four-legged stool so that it projects two fingers above the rope-work. Then heat below with charcoal, and keep watch over the sittings — both when she sits down and when she rises — so that she is not burned; rather, she should sit down while the vapor apparatus is still cool and rise only when the pipe has cooled down. The time spent at the vapor-bath should occupy as large a portion of the day as possible. This kind of vapor-bath should be used for five days with leeks, and on the ten days in place of leeks use garlic; use this vapor-bath, and having chopped the whole bundle, throw it into the seawater. After the remaining days let her use plain seawater alone for vapor, and take care that she does not approach a man throughout the entire treatment. For the last vapor-bath, when you are about to release her from treatment, take the youngest possible puppy and cut it open; having pounded as many kinds of the most fragrant and driest aromatic substances as possible, remove the entrails of the puppy and fill and pack it as full as possible with the aromatics; place small sticks underneath, put the puppy into the vessel, pour over it the most fragrant wine possible, and let her take vapor through the pipe. She should remain as long as she can on this vapor-bath throughout the whole day; while she is taking vapor, ask her whether the smell of the aromatics seems to her to come through the mouth — for this is no small sign of patency of the womb for the woman being treated. For the suppositories, use as much saffron as you wish, myrrh the amount of two beans, and mix in plenty of salt, taking these as your measure, and ox bile the amount of two beans. If you want it milder, mix in less bile; if stronger, more. Having ground these smooth, drip in honey alongside and grind until it becomes, through grinding, such that it can be wiped off with a finger. The longer you grind it, the drier and more viscous and better it will be. Having made it thicker than a pessary, with a pointed tip, thickest in the middle and then tapering so as to be fitted against the womb, insert into it two smooth little sticks of marjoram; let them be six fingers long. Then wrap the little sticks with wool as soft as possible; after this, wrap them from above with a fine thread, and let the thread project four fingers beyond the sticks. The woman, having washed and made herself as clean as possible, should insert it at the mouth of the womb, placing a cloth beneath the hips, and it should remain in place through the night. The discharge itself will be watery. On the second day let her rise and bathe, and not sit at the vapor-bath on that day. When she has taken vapor and has risen from the vapor apparatus, a cerotum should have been prepared from the first day as finely made as possible, and mixed in — stag marrow above all, or if not that, goose fat. Each day when she rises from the vapor apparatus, having washed and made herself clean before going to bed, let her anoint the womb with the cerotum each day. Mix in everything else the same as in the earlier preparations, except the bile; and grinding marjoram as smooth as possible, mix it into the pessary and apply it. 230 (50) [85] Another: all the other things the same and made in the same manner, but instead of marjoram mix in wormwood, and having made it in the same manner, apply it. Another: selecting black-seed from among the wheat, having ground it smooth and thoroughly, and mixed in honey, and made it into a ball shape, apply it; except that this causes fevers, and the joint swells, and it is strongly biting. Another: boiling honey and having pounded the fine portion of black hellebore — if it is more, it will be strongly biting; this also tends to cause fever. Another: having boiled honey in the same manner and mixed in elaterium to the amount of a dose to be boiled, and having made a pessary, give it to be applied in the same manner. This too tends to cause fever, and it also brings blood, and in some cases tissues as well. If you wish, you may also shave the dragonwort; it is mild in boiled or raw honey, and make this too into a ball shape, about the size of a large gall-nut. Try to act according to nature, attending to the woman's constitution and strength; for none of these remedies has a fixed measure — instead, judge from these very things and try to make use of, for the whole body, head purgings, medicinal treatments, womb vapor-baths, and suppositories. These are your basic elements; the treatment of these is in each part in turn, and whatever of these you do not do, let her remain constantly at the vapor-bath — for this is what softens and draws out the ichors. When you cease the treatment, as the natural discharges are coming to an end, blood must be taken from the arm; if she is strong, from both arms, and if she is weaker, from one, whichever suffices. As for the diaita — regimen of living — to be used during these treatments, I have explained it elsewhere. If you wish to fumigate, select the darnel from among the wheat, grind it fine, make a fire of vine-cuttings as gentle as possible, then put it into a bowl, place it in a half-pint measure, and wrapping cloths around so that she sits comfortably, tell her to sit on the half-pint measure, spreading her legs as wide as possible. The treatment, if adequate, will be accomplished within four months; if not, consider in light of these things, and take care that she does not approach a man during the time she is being treated. During the treatments, give pine-torch wood soaked in water to a fasting woman, about a cupful, and let her keep the tin vessel with her continuously. Also give cotyledon boiled in water, with salt and cumin boiled together, and have her drink it warm. The broad ones seem to be female-bearing, and the small and tightly closed ones, male-bearing. A supreme aid to conception: give black-seed to a woman in dark astringent wine. 232 [5] A young woman is troubled by a red flux, and treatment with drugs, head purging, and bloodletting does her no good. This seems to be the cause of her failure to conceive. I gave her a decoction of aspalathos roots in white wine, morning and before dinner; the flux stopped, and before long she conceived and gave birth to a male child; her complexion was fair, and she was well-fleshed. Concerning the mole. 233 [20] Concerning mole pregnancy, the cause is this: when the monthly discharges, being abundant, take up seed that is scanty and diseased, no true embryo forms, yet the belly is full as if pregnant; nothing moves in the belly, nor does milk come into the breasts; but her chest is taut. She may remain in this state for two years, often even three. If it becomes a single mass of flesh, the woman perishes, for she cannot survive it; if it is many pieces, much blood mixed with flesh breaks through her genitals; and if it is moderate, she is saved, but if not, she is seized by a flux and perishes. Such is the disease. It should be judged by the fullness and the fact that nothing moves in the belly; for a male has movement at three months, a female at four months. When therefore the time has passed and there is no movement, clearly this is the condition; and a great sign is that no milk forms in the breasts. This case should preferably not be treated; but if otherwise, treat only after forewarning. First, vapor-bathe the whole body of the woman, then give an enema through the rectum to purge it thoroughly; for a large enema might dislodge what seems to be the embryo — the consolidated mass — the woman having been thoroughly heated by the drug. Also inject into the womb to bring blood; if not, use suppositories from buprestis as strong as possible, and give Cretan dittany to drink in wine; if not, also the beaver's testicle; and apply a cupping vessel from behind against her flanks, and draw out as much as possible; apply it as precisely as possible, working with respect to the womb. For purging: when it does not occur, whether after childbirth or otherwise, pound very rich pine-torch wood fine, boil in white wine, and use about three cupfuls of the decoction. 234 [5] Four seeds of sweetwort, a little Ethiopian cumin and more seseli, or cedar berry; if there is choking, a little castor. If after childbirth, when purging is moderate, the belly remains, or becomes distended with confined wind and painful, whether with fever or without fever: a fifth part of a dose of scammony juice, or seseli, or some other aromatic, and rue in white wine. If she is unwilling to drink, instead make an ointment for rectal application, using bull's bile and honey and natron. If after a miscarriage the purging is painful, and when aromatics are given nothing responds, and there is fever: boil two kotylai of goat's milk, then when it has cooled remove the skin, and having strained it, mix in about a third part of honey-water, so that it will be sweeter; give it to drink three times fasting. If the pain does not cease nor the bowel pass anything, toward evening let her sit in a basin of warm water; when she has been thoroughly warmed, raise her up and give an enema in astringent dark wine diluted with water once, with half the water being oil, and inject it warm, and let her sleep on it. Suppository for the womb when it is closed up or the mouth is hard: clean out a white fig and mix in Egyptian natron, the purest, ground smooth; make a suppository about the size of a small gall-nut in soft wool; dipping it in iris-oil ointment, let her apply it whether for three or more days, as seems right. A vapor-bath with fragrant substances is beneficial after this; after this a mild suppository is needed, one that will draw out ichorous material best; after this, mercury herb — if it is tender — use with rose-oil in linen for a day and a night. 235 [15] For the same condition: bring bull's bile and salt to a boil and mix in sulfur, making it elongated in shape, about the size of a large olive pit, and apply it bare to the womb itself for two days and nights. Again after this use mercury herb, sprinkling on pure unmixed myrrh mixed in, dissolved in rose-oil, and anoint the mouth of the womb as far inside as possible with iris-oil ointment. Treatment for the same condition: having pounded fragrant iris and sifted it separately, an equal amount of galingale, and a mass about the size of a kneaded cake, dissolve in aromatic wine; then make it into an ointment, and spreading it on linen cloths the length of a span, put it into a small flour-sieve so that no air passes around it, and let her apply it. If the womb becomes ulcerated, or the mouth roughens, or is bitten by some suppository, anoint fat in wool, spread rose-oil over it, and a little wax. 237 [5] When a woman with child miscarries, the embryo being one month old, and she cannot carry to term and has become abnormally thin, it is necessary to purge her womb and treat her with drugs and fatten her, for she will not be able to carry to term until she has recovered herself and the womb has strength. If she does conceive but loses the children at exactly two months, to the day, neither earlier nor later, and this happens to her two or three times in the same manner, or she miscarries in this same manner when even further along, the womb of such a woman does not expand to accommodate the growing child as it increases beyond the two- or three-month stage. Instead the child grows, but the womb does not expand at all; and for this reason most such women miscarry at the same point in time. 238 [20] This woman's womb must be irrigated and as far as possible dilated with the following suppository drugs: pound the inner part of the squirting cucumber and sift it, add a little silphium, mixing small amounts into a larger quantity of boiled-down honey; smear this around a probe to the thickness that the neck of the womb is likely to accept, toward the mouth of the womb, and push it in far, until it passes to the interior of the womb. When the drug melts, remove the probe, and again in the same way make a preparation of elaterium and wild gourd in the same manner as the previous one and apply it. During this time let her eat as much garlic as possible, and stalks of silphium, and use such diaita — regimen of living — as is most likely to produce wind in the bowel. Let the suppository be applied every other day, until it seems to be going well; sometimes even less often; the overall principle is however she tolerates it. On the intervening days use mild preparations. When the mouth of the womb has been settled by the softening agents and the monthly discharge appears, she should wait until she is already dry, then come together with the man. To produce wind in the womb whenever you wish, mix wild garlic and silphium juice into the suppositories. 240 [5] And any woman who cannot continue through the ten months of pregnancy but miscarries and has this happen repeatedly: purge her womb with water, and treat her with drugs, so that she is purged by water. If, retaining the seed, she does not conceive — and this happens to most women when the mouth of the womb remains unnaturally open — the monthly discharges become more than proper and wetter, so that what comes from the woman cannot be taken up for generation, and the seed of the man when it enters is destroyed. These things happen when both the body and the womb are diseased. 241 [5] But it is necessary to give this woman downward-acting purges at intervals, and to vapor-bathe the whole body, and the womb with vinegar and seawater, throwing in red-hot millstones; and throw into the vapor apparatus shavings of cypress, and pounded leaves of fresh bay, and leaves of polyknemon itself. Let her take vapor for as long a time as seems appropriate; after this let her bathe, boiling in vinegar shavings of lotus-wood and rose-oil and the leaves of polyknemon itself. At the end, fumigate with pounded mullein leaves and lotus-wood shavings; but before bathing, fumigate with myrrh and frankincense, having ground equal parts of each, and myrtle and bay leaves, mixing these together and placing them on a gentle fire, fumigate her while she has just had a vapor-bath, twice a day; vapor-bathe her while she has just bathed, and after the fumigation let her bathe. Restore the mouth of the womb to its natural state. And if she is strong enough, before all of these things cut the vein in the left arm, and then do the other things. If the mouth is in this condition but the monthly discharges do not come, or come poorly, or in smaller amount, turn toward more extensive purging in addition to all the other things, and treat accordingly, and apply suppositories if needed, and from the preceding washings and fumigations and drying treatments. If a woman miscarries involuntarily and does not wish to expel the child, give roasted and ground wheat and pounded white raisins, dissolving these in sweet honey-water, pouring in a little oil, to drink on an empty stomach; after this, having ground radish seed and vinegar and goose fat and mixed these together, let her eat them, and apply pounded bay leaves as a suppository; after this let her drink marjoram and pennyroyal and barley-meal in water, sprinkling on pounded and finely ground bay leaves, mixing in gum, dissolving in water, and give to drink. 242 [15] Another: sheep fat and goose fat, and honey, mixed together in the same vessel and ground, give as a lick-preparation. Another: grinding wild carrot as smooth as possible, mixing in the cream of milk, melting goose fat, boiling these together, give to sip. Another: having ground marjoram leaves as smooth as possible — if available, fresh, if not, dry — dissolved in water, give to drink. Another: grinding bay-berry as smooth as possible, melting the fat of a sow, and mixing all these together with honey and grinding, give as a lick-preparation. Another: grinding wild carrot as smooth as possible, dissolved in diluted wine, give to drink. If the womb does not retain the seed, having ground lead and the stone that attracts iron into a smooth powder, bind it in a cloth, and having dipped it in woman's milk, use it as a suppository. 243 [5] Another: having ground flower of copper, dissolve in honey, and apply this. When the womb expels the man's seed on the third day, it is absolutely necessary that, if a woman has this condition, her womb is filled with concretion, and the man's seed cannot remain in the womb, but is shut out, and for this reason she cannot conceive as long as the concretion is in the womb. 244 [15] The removal of the concretion is as follows: taking as few and as soft feathers as possible and binding them together, use these to smear the womb, just as they smear the eyes, having smoothed the feathers and bound the tips with the thinnest possible thread; then having anointed them with much rose-oil, lay the woman on her back, place a pillow under the middle of her lower back, insert the probe, with the woman's legs stretched out and spread apart, one to each side, and move the probe up and down until it protrudes. When you see it at the mouth of the womb — if it is not caught against the hip-bone and is willing to follow — that is best of all. If it is caught in the mouth of the womb, carefully draw it out with the thinnest possible forceps, gently and without force; and after this let her sleep with the man. If bleeding appears while she is pregnant, having ground dry donkey-dung, red ochre, and cuttlefish bone smooth, bind in a cloth and apply. 245 Another: grinding the dark seeds of sweetwort in diluted wine, give to drink. If during intercourse she has pain in the lower belly and fresh blood appears to her, having pounded flax and tender club-rush and goose oil, mixing these together and dissolving in diluted white wine, give to drink. 247 [10] If the womb prolapses outside the natural opening, there is heat especially in the genitals and the anus, and the urine trickles out a little at a time and causes a burning sensation in the genitals. She suffers this if she sleeps with her man when she has just given birth. When the condition is such, having boiled myrtle berries and shavings of lotus-wood in water, set the water out in the open air, and let her pour it as cold as possible over the genitals, and applying it ground smooth as a plaster; then, drinking water in which lentils have been boiled, mixed with honey and vinegar, let her vomit until the womb is drawn back up; and let the bed be elevated at the foot end. Fumigate under the genitals with foul-smelling substances, and under the nostrils with fragrant ones. Let her use food as soft and cold as possible, drink diluted white wine, not bathe, and sleep with her man. If they have fallen out altogether from the genitals, they hang down like a scrotum, and pain seizes her. This happens when after childbirth she has endured such hardship as to shake the womb, or sleeps with her man during the lying-in period. 248 [20] When the condition is such, apply cooling things to the genitals, and having cleaned the outside, boil pomegranate rind in dark winey wine, rinse it off in this way, and push it back inside. Then, having melted equal parts of honey and resin together, pour it into the genitals, and let her lie on her back with her legs extended and raised; then apply a sponge and bind it from the hips. While the condition persists, she should abstain from food and use as little drink as possible, until seven days have passed. And if they are willing to go back in this way — fine; but if not, scrape the tips of the womb and rinse with boiled pitch-pine; then having tied her feet to a ladder, beat on the head, and push inward by hand; then having bound the legs crossed over each other, let her stay quietly for a day and a night. Give a little cold barley-water, nothing else. On the following day, laying her on her hip, apply the largest possible cupping vessel and let it draw for a long time, and when you remove it, lay her down and let her lie there, and apply nothing else but the barley-water, until seven days have passed. Let her use food as soft and as spare as possible. If she needs to move her bowels, let her do so lying down, until fourteen days have passed. Then let her rise and move about as little as possible; let her not bathe, use little food, fumigate the genitals with foul-smelling substances, and when she begins to move around, let her wear the sling. Removal of the embryo: when an embryo has died in the womb, perform embryotomy — removing piece by piece, breaking what is visible bit by bit according to procedure, leaving the skin as a shield for the instrument.