... Disputationem medicam de mensium suppressione

XVI.

Let us proceed to the Prognostics. These teach us what we should hope for regarding the affection, lest we perhaps commit some error of which we might later repent. I. For a woman, when the menses are suppressed, a flow of blood from the nostrils is a good sign. (Hipp. 5. aph. 33). II. Women who have given birth are in less danger and bear it more easily than virgins. (Hipp. lib. 1. de morb. mul.). III. A suppression of the menses that arises from copious matter is more easily removed than that which arises from viscous and thick matter. (Capivac. lib. 4. de aff. uteri). IV. If the menses do not flow from the uterus, diseases arise. (Hipp. 5. aph. 57). V. If the suppression of the menses persists for six months and is not removed before the sixth, it is impossible for women to be restored. (Hipp. lib. 1. de morb. mul.).

XVII.

However, it is to be believed that this last point can be done with difficulty rather than as an impossibility: since the same Hippocrates (lib. 4. popul.) wrote that there was a serving maid whose menses had been suppressed for seven years, who nevertheless was at last restored to her former state when they returned. (Mercat. lib. 1. de com. mul. aff. cap. 9). Mercurialis makes mention of Gorgia’s wife (5. Epid. 4), who, when she had had her menses suppressed for four years, finally gave birth, and after many labors was cured. Bottanus says this is true when this suppression is joined with a vehemence of symptoms, such as delirium, anxieties, muteness, etc. (Capivacc. lib. 4. d. aff. ut.).

XIIX.

The cure follows. Since this affection is a symptom, and therefore depends upon a disease, it can by no means be removed while the disease from which it originates stands and persists. But since that disease is either of the uterus, or of the whole body, or of some principal viscus—which remains in the posterior sections—I deliberately omit the cure for the sake of brevity, especially since they come to us under names other than the suppression of the menses: [I shall proceed] to examine that species which acknowledges the uterus as the affected part, which is Obstruction.

XIX.

Obstruction is generated either by plethora, or by a thick and viscous humor. Plethora indicates bloodletting. Thick humor must be attenuated.