... Disputationem medicam de mensium suppressione

[The humor] must be thinned; the sluggish must be cut; the viscous must be wiped away; once prepared for exclusion, it must be purged; emmenagogues medicines that promote menstruation must be exhibited; alteratives medicines to restore health, and those providing and preserving strength, must be put into use. We can achieve all these things through surgery, pharmacy, and diet.

Surgery, in its scope, embraces phlebotomy bloodletting, cupping glasses, leeches, ligatures, and frictions. When great plethora an excess of bodily fluid exists, the vein of the arm is first struck: hence, the Saphena the great saphenous vein, which is under the malleolus ankle bone or interior heel. The former [is struck] in ten or fourteen days, or at any time indifferently; the latter three or four days before the fixed time of menstruation. But if the redundancy of blood is moderate, and pertains to a part rather than the whole, leaving the arm vein, one should approach the sectioning of the popliteal or ankle vein, having taken into account the same timing and having attended to the preliminary matters. In its place, if it pleases less or is not convenient, cupping glasses applied with scarification to the popliteal, the interior seat of the hips, and the pubic area can be substituted with no less fruit; leeches applied to the ankle; tight ligatures on the feet and hips; and strong frictions made downwards through the entire foot.

When menses stagnate because of the vice and impurity of the blood, purgation through the belly must be undertaken. A laxative should be administered first, however, because of the superfluities of the first digestion in the stomach and intestines. Then, for several days, humors are prepared according to their diversity with various things; Syrup of Mugwort, five roots, simple Oxymel honey and vinegar, etc., administered in water of mugwort, matricaria feverfew, pennyroyal, etc., with a little cinnamon added. Once digestion has occurred, a Catharticum a purgative medicine, to which those things that simultaneously move the menses can be mixed with happy success, is offered in the form that most pleases the patient: for example, take half a drachm of Hiera a medicinal powder of aloes and spices and Benedictive Laxative; one scruple of fetid pills likely asafetida-based; let pills be made with white wine.

If these cannot be taken, a potion may be given. Take two ounces each of a decoction of Senna, Savin, and the flowers of small centaury; half an ounce each of the syrup of roses and the Benedictive Laxative; one drachm of agaric troches; mix for a potion.