LEECH BOOK. III. 



331 



the matrix prolapse. If what is natural will not come 

 away from a woman after the birth, seethe old lard 

 in water, bathe the vulva therewith ; or boil in ale 

 brooklime or hollyhock, administer it to drink hot. If 

 there be a dead bairn in a woman, boil in milk and 

 in water brooklime and pulegium, give it her to drink 

 twice a day. Earnestly must a pregnant woman be 

 cautioned, that she eat naught salt or sweet, noi- drink 

 beer, nor eat swines flesh, nor aught fat, nor drink to 

 drunkenness, nor fare by the way, nor ride too much 

 on horse, lest the bairn come from her before the right 

 time. If she bleed too much after the birth, boil in 

 milk the netherward part of clote, give it her to cat, 

 and the ooze to sip. 



Book III. 

 Ch, xxxvii. 



XXXVIU. 



1 . In case mulieribus menstrua suppressa sunt ; boil 

 in ale brooklime, and the two centauries, give "Aer"^ 

 this to drink, and beathe " the woman " in a hot bath, 

 and let her drink the draught in the bath ; have ready 

 prepared a poultice of beer dregs, and of green mug- 

 wort, and marche, and of barley meal ; mix them all 

 together ; shake them up in a pan, apply to the natura, 

 and to the netherward part of the vulva, when she 

 goeth. off the bath, and let her drink a cup full of the 

 same drink warm, and wrap up the woman well, and 

 leave her so poulticed for a long time of the day,^ do 

 so twice or thrice, whichever thou must. Thou shalt 

 always prepare a bath and give the potion to the 

 woman at that ilk tide, at which the catamenia were 

 vipon her ; inquire of the woman about that. 



2. Si muliebria nimis fluunt ; take a fresh horses 

 tord, lay it on hot gledes, make it reek strongly 



' The Saxon text varies the 

 numbers, plural and singular. 

 - By a transposition in the text, 



we should get " twice or thrice a 

 " day." 



